Mr. Speaker, I really enjoyed how the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca outlined what the judge had said relating to CSIS. It is an important issue. The judge certainly felt that his decision was in fact violated by one of the security agencies.
I am surprised by the line we are now hearing from the government that we would set up a partisan committee. That is not true. We would set up a committee of members of Parliament who would swear an oath, a thing that the Privy Council does. They would in fact give up the right to ask questions in the House about the knowledge they had been given internally, in order to ensure that the privacy of Canadians is being protected.
I have been in government. I have been a minister. Because I was the Solicitor General, I know the pressure that the bureaucracy places on ensuring that security trumps all else.
Let us refer to the Information Commissioner of Ontario who says that it has been revealed that our very own CSEC has been working alongside the NSA, hand in hand, in what is beginning to look like a worldwide assault on privacy, with no government accountability.
Is it not time that the government took some responsibility and allowed the Parliament of Canada to do its job?