Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary should know that we are supporting the bill, but we are very hopeful that Parliament will be allowed to work. There are a lot of clauses in the bill around which there are questions, on which we need expert testimony, and on which we need legal advice.
Could the parliamentary secretary assure us that the amendments will indeed be allowed?
She went on at length about judicial oversight. However, anybody who is watching this debate knows that judicial oversight is not enough.
Judicial oversight is between the judge and CSIS, and there might be a special advocate at times protecting the public interest, which might be different every time, but CSIS is arguing why it needs the warrant. Too many mistakes have happened in the past, and Judge Mosley, on December 20, 2013, came down with a decision. He said that CSIS breached its duty of candour to the court by not disclosing information that was relevant to the exercise to the jurisdiction by the court:
...the Court...determined that the execution of the type of warrants at issue in Canada has been accompanied by requests made by CSEC, on behalf of CSIS, to foreign agencies...for the interception of the telecommunications of Canadian persons abroad.
The court concluded that this is “not authorized under any warrant issued by CSIS...”.
The point is that there is pressure on the judges. What we need in addition to that is parliamentary oversight. Will the parliament secretary support that?