Public Safety committee  Oh. Well, no, I didn't--

Public Safety committee  Okay.

Public Safety committee  What I was talking about there was the range. When I said doing nothing, we would perhaps assess the information as being “so what” information--it's none of our business and we've got to let that go.

Public Safety committee  No. I'll let the deputy talk about that, but we may do nothing because we want to protect an investigation. We may do nothing in terms of advising people, because that would infringe upon the integrity of such an investigation or an investigation in the future. That may be a condition too.

Public Safety committee  Perhaps I could add, sir, that I think it's important in terms of talking about the handling of classified material. Again, the range of activity that could occur there in terms of misconduct around that material could be in the ordinary course of business of government employee acts--negligence, inattentiveness--which doesn't hit the criminal conduct threshold, and then there is the intentional distribution, espionage-type activity at the other spectrum.

Public Safety committee  Let me take a crack it, because it's important that we understand the protective function of the officers accompanying those ministers for whom there has been a threat identified--the protective function that they must perform. If, in the course of those duties, they observe behaviour which is criminal, it doesn't matter who's doing that, they're duty-bound to uphold the law.

Public Safety committee  It's not for lack of trying.

Public Safety committee  Perhaps I could add something here. I think it's important for the committee to understand the level of complexity that attaches to investigations in today's environment. There's a need to respect the various statutes, the most important ones being the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Privacy Act.

Public Safety committee  Right.

Public Safety committee  I'm going to answer in English because I want to be precise. The departments that have conduct of the security clearance process would, in the normal course of the clearance process, submit the background checks of those individuals who are identified in the application for the particular clearance of the individual who is seeking the clearance.

Public Safety committee  I think it's important for each department to have a departmental security officer and for that officer to be responsible for looking at the background and reliability of people accompanying dignitaries. As the deputy said, we look after the security and the site security.

Public Safety committee  I think you're referring to, if I may use the term, the full-blown security clearance. We distinguish between the pre-appointment background checks--

Public Safety committee  --and then the security clearance at the top-secret level, for example, which would feature the most robust canvassing of the associates of the person in question to include field interviews perhaps with neighbours, with associates, with former employers, with references. So that's what it refers to.

Public Safety committee  I'd like to add something else. As the deputy commissioner said a few minutes ago, a number of options are open to us when we are given information. We can conduct an investigation, notify the Privy Council Office, monitor the situation or do nothing at all, based on our assessment of the information—

Public Safety committee  We shouldn't make any comments on that case. It wouldn't be appropriate and it wouldn't be fair to make comments on the particular facts—