Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thanks, Mr. Kerr.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll turn it over to the CIO in a moment, but first of all let me say that I couldn't agree with you more. The idea of entering into a conversation and a dialogue with our political representatives, whether it be for or against a particular measure, is one that I think is entirely laudable.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It has nothing to do with real political engagement. With regard to the cyber-bullying and the question of security, I mentioned earlier that CSE, the Communications Security Establishment, is basically the authority here in Canada that is set up to look specifically at cyberthreats.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I think Ms. Latendresse is entirely correct. I can't see how you could identify a person or persons responsible for the threats against the minister. As you say so well, because it is not even an organized group, anyone can use the name Anonymous, which is even encouraged by the people marketing it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, I think it would be overstating it to say that we would monitor the outcome of the investigation in the United States or the United Kingdom. But we'd certainly keep ourselves aware of the developments there.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, the sergeant would not like to get into the details of this individual case in a public situation. I think it's fair to say, though, that the House as an administration wouldn't be in a position to make that kind of complaint—just to clarify that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think maybe the sergeant can answer that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I'll turn it over to the sergeant, who obviously knows more about the consultations among police forces. I think we have a very good working relationship with the authorities and we use that. At the same time, I think that the House as an institution, we as the House administration, do not seek investigation on a particular case.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, Mr. Garneau's description of the situation is, in my opinion, very appropriate. You were speaking about being hacked on your Twitter account. The important thing to know is that because you are on Twitter you are outside any kind of protective network, so basically anything goes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Oh, absolutely. I guess I was linking this to the hacker conversation earlier.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Forgive me. I think I may have gone on too long, which is a tendency of mine. You are absolutely right, and I didn't mean to trivialize this as a matter of staying away from Wi-Fi. But as soon as you look at the possibility of limiting what goes up on YouTube, you get into a conversation about freedom of speech.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. The question that you ask really goes to the heart of the work of the committee on this issue. It's certainly not an easy task, partly because, as Ms. Charlton has said, this is an unprecedented situation, in that the attacks in question come from an unknown entity. The name Anonymous is there.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Before I ask CIO Louis Bard to reply to Mr. Lukiwski's question, I want to say that the threats from the group Anonymous really had nothing to do with the network. This was something posted on YouTube, so it's completely outside our control or our environment. With regard to the hacking situation and what measures are in place, Louis can speak to this matter.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Great. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be here today. It is a pleasure to join you to discuss this very important issue. I am accompanied by two of my department heads. Louis Bard is the Chief Information Officer of the House of Commons. He is responsible for the Information Services Directorate.