Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from Thornhill has posited to the House that, if someone does not want to release the names, they are hiding from accountability. As somebody who has a chief top secret security clearance and never hides from anything, I want to assure her that the main concern I have is to abide by the law.
I was trained in law; the law matters, and our security laws and the protection of information require that certain information not be revealed to anyone. Therefore, while there is an exemption in the CSIS Act, it does not mean that someone can walk across the floor and take into their own hands reckless activity that could endanger our security and intelligence assets found around the world.
What would our Five Eyes partners think of dealing with a country that takes its security so loosely and, with respect to our intelligence assets, with such a cavalier disregard for their safety that we publish things? That is why it was such a concern for our special rapporteur that CSIS operatives were sending things to The Globe and Mail.
We need to have a full debate that focuses on Canadians' safety. Again, it should be country first, party second or maybe never.