Mr. Speaker, I am happy to respond to the member's concern and would ask him a question. On what basis does he know that individuals pose a threat to public security?
It does not make me feel better. It makes me feel a lot worse to know that there are secret processes underway in our country that can put people on a list for what reason it would never be known to them. They would be denied the right to fly or to go across a border or other liberties would be taken away without their ever knowing what it is that they are suspected of.
It is a fundamental law of justice that if someone poses a public risk or a security risk, then bring forward the evidence and engage in a judicial process. We all support the idea of needing security but we have to seriously question and examine how far down the road we have gone with the various pieces of legislation we have, and what I understand to be proposals by Transport Canada to have this no fly list. How far down the road have we gone of actually removing people's basic human rights?
It is one thing to say that someone poses a public threat, but if there is no information or evidence to show that the person does or does not, then I would question what kind of society we are moving toward where we would place someone on the list and remove that person's rights without bringing that evidence forward. Apparently that is where we seem to be headed.
This new department that is being created will have responsibility for some of these agencies. I frankly think that should be of concern to us. We should not be willing to blindly accept on the basis of a secret security process that we know nothing about, that any individual can basically have their rights removed. I am surprised that the member would somehow accept that.