Public Safety committee  The law applies to everyone the same way, including elected officials who have the right security clearance to receive information and officials in government who are bound by the law.

Public Safety committee  There is only one mechanism that exists so far. It is the process connected with being a member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, NSICOP. That's a top secret clearance. Leaders of opposition parties have also been offered that. Essentially, we have two processes that exist.

Public Safety committee  I think this is one of the most fundamental questions we can talk about. The world is getting more and more complex. The threat environment is making Canada less safe and less prosperous than before. We need different tools and different mindsets when approaching threats to national security.

Public Safety committee  I think the example the member is using is quite different from what we're talking about here, to be precise. The issue here is releasing classified information without context and without the ability to protect the information. A lot of this information comes from very sensitive sources.

Public Safety committee  It's a really important question. It speaks to the fact that, as a nation, we're going through an evolution in how we address national security issues. This is a bit of uncharted territory. In my experience, we have never seen politicians and leaders having classified security clearances and being in a position to receive information.

Public Safety committee  I would probably use a different characterization. I would say the law would prevent the member from speaking. The challenge we have is that there's the law, and there's also privilege in the House of Commons. Again, in terms of the evolution of how the system should work, if someone gets information in a privileged way and then uses the privilege of the House to divulge information, we are in uncharted territory for how this would be done.

Public Safety committee  Yes. Thank you. The legislation is quite clear and has been in place for some time. The Security of Information Act is there to protect sources and methods and to protect against disclosure of information that would be injurious to people. I think we have seen the impact of leaks, and when classified information is released, there are challenges that come with that.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Minister. The member points to something extremely important in the debate on foreign interference. There was a lot of focus on electoral interference, but minority communities have been targeted and continue to be targeted by foreign states. That's why it's so important that we have the proper tools.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, I will not be so presumptuous as to tell parliamentarians what they should do, but I can tell you, as the director of CSIS, that we and our colleagues in the national security and intelligence community are just as concerned about many files. The threat environment evolving in Canada right now is probably the worst we've ever seen.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, I will say that I did not write this paragraph. That's why we employ people at CSIS who are much more intelligent than I am to make sense of this information. Seriously, Mr. Chair, what I think is important here is understanding that the cutting-edge research being done at the national microbiology lab, as mentioned by my colleague, is absolutely essential for Canada.

Canada-China Relations committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, I have.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, I'll go back down memory lane here. I believe the report that Mr. Ellis is referring to is a document that was sponsored by CSIS but was produced by academics under Chatham House Rule. The conclusions about New Zealand were conclusions that were made public by CSIS through this academic report.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not at liberty to discuss the specific details of that cyber-attack. The origin of that attack has not been attributed publicly by FINTRAC. I can say that we and our other partners in the national security and cyber community in the Government of Canada are working directly with FINTRAC to support them, but the attribution has not yet been made regarding this event.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, to the question by Mr. Angus, I would say that we are seeing and detecting more cyber-attacks from the PRC, and also from many other countries and states, but from criminal organizations as well. We see the rise of ransomware that is sometimes purely criminal in nature.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. Absolutely, we're trying to look at AI from two sides of the coin. We need to look at how we can harness artificial intelligence in our own practices. At CSIS we are using AI for different processes already. We're working with partners in Canada and around the world to try to harness artificial intelligence from a national security point of view and how it could be of benefit.