Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. Ordinarily what would happen is that the tours would be cancelled, because you can't have the tours when you have the welcoming ceremony in the rotunda. The other thing is, if the visitor is still in the building, usually the tours will be cancelled until the visitor exits and goes off to the next event, again, purely as a security measure.

Canadian Heritage committee  One of my continuing hopes is that at some point we will be able to free up Elizabeth and her rather astounding corporate memory for protocol events, certainly before she goes into the happy climes of retirement—not that she's thinking of doing that any time soon—and pull together what could be a helpful sort of guidebook or guidelines on the principles of protocol.

Canadian Heritage committee  There is a set program, and I'll ask Elizabeth to speak to that directly. Of course, with the current world in which we live, the security posture is dictated by the risk assessment that is done on the danger posed to the visitor so that, for example—this is perhaps not the time to talk about the Secret Service—the relationships with the Secret Service and the security surrounding the President of the United States are such that they are well known for sort of taking over wherever they go to protect the President.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I think that it goes very well, overall. I must say—and this is more of a personal comment—that in the case of Mr. plus Layton's funeral, everyone cared deeply about having it all go well, that it would be a consolation to the family and that it would be an inspiration for Canadians.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may stray a little bit, Mr. Chair, I'd like to use Mr. Layton's funeral as an example. At 10:30 a.m. on the day his death was announced, I was in the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Elizabeth was there too, as was a key person from the Prime Minister's Office. We knew that there would be a situation to manage.

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me ask Elizabeth to answer that directly.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to appear before you today as you embark upon this study. As you've heard, the protocol requirements of the government for state visits, funerals, and other events are served by the protocol offices at the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  To my knowledge, the law clerk has not been asked for an opinion on that matter, no.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I understand from the Sergeant-at-Arms, in his everlasting role of monitoring the latest developments, that there was something posted on Twitter that allowed that I was doing okay testifying before this committee, but that I might be confusing “Anonymous” with a group that is “LulzSec”.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, I don't know whether I should be apologizing to these people, or whether they're bad people I don't care about. I think it comes back to Mr. Zimmer's point that we all have a responsibility not to be taken in by websites that are having us inadvertently spread spam or malware around.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Preston. It's always a pleasure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Perhaps—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Just to tie that up, when Monsieur Bard was saying that if you, for example, receive an e-mail on your Hill account, and for whatever reason you want to know where that came from, we can provide that information to you. Then, as to what you decide to do with it, if you feel that it infringes your rights such that you want to lodge a complaint with the RCMP, as Kevin says, it's up to you to do.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I may say, Mr. Chairman, to you and to Mr. Kerr, it's up to the committee to decide where it wants to take this investigation, in terms of a learning experience as much as anything else. Certainly one of the things Louis was pointing out is that we make it our business to have contacts with the various authorities and with private industry so that we are constantly apprised of the developments in technology as well as the flip side of that, which is the developments of the evildoers.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I said, I think that is up to you to decide. As far as I'm personally concerned, you have the two House of Commons experts here that you need. As for what exists out there in terms of authorities, you might find it helpful to pursue things in camera about specific situations you have lived through and so on.