Transport committee  Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation. My name is Joe Oliver, and I am the assistant commissioner responsible for the RCMP's technical operations directorate. I'm delighted to join my colleagues from Transport Canada and CSIS to speak to you today about the RCMP's role in supporting the transportation security clearance program.

Information & Ethics committee  Interpol is an organization of more than 180 members. There are information-sharing arrangements put in place when it comes to specific information. Those are based on agreements. There is a structure around how that information is shared. What I could say is that sharing your information is never taken lightly.

Information & Ethics committee  Technology has actually improved the lives of Canadians, and we've adopted technology more quickly than most nations. We spend the most time online. But with the advancements in technology also come opportunities for criminals and terrorists who can use that technology as well.

Information & Ethics committee  I would support the remarks of my colleagues, but I would also, in relation to one specific recommendation, create a legal obligation with government institutions to safeguard personal information. In the age of information technology, we need to be very mindful of the cyber-threats that exist, and we need to put in place the necessary IT security infrastructure in order to protect that information.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely. Again I'll go back to the safeguards that are put in place. One of the biggest threats of privacy breaches or information leaks is actually the insider threat. We spend a lot of time with respect to security, screening individuals, and making sure that the right people have access to the right information, and that they are screened at the right level.

Information & Ethics committee  Let me just qualify a bit in terms of the RCMP's information-sharing arrangements. Our information sharing is strictly related to criminal investigations, so for law enforcement purposes. We don't share national security intelligence with international partners. That's the role of our colleagues in the service.

Information & Ethics committee  From my experience, we put in place the arrangements with them based on guiding principles, and there are guiding principles when it comes to international sharing. We're guided by the ministerial directive in a couple of areas. One is that for any arrangement we have, we must receive advice from Global Affairs, if it's an international arrangement, and legal advice.

Information & Ethics committee  Much of our collection is actually judicially authorized. We've presented cases to a judge indicating a compelling reason for us to pursue very specific targeted and focused information under warrant or under production order. I would say, and I go back to the point that I raised earlier, that if this section were supported, how it would be crafted would be important to us.

Information & Ethics committee  Where we have long-standing relationships whereby the information is regularly shared, normally that is supported by an agreement that outlines the information protections required. However, it would be operationally impossible, I think, to negotiate an agreement with everybody we share with.

Information & Ethics committee  No. When we share information, it's for consistent use and it would include caveats regarding further dissemination.

Information & Ethics committee  That would be consistent with the situation for the RCMP. As long as it's collected for a consistent use, the disclosure is consistent with the Privacy Act, and we've assessed reliability, relevance, and so forth, then we would share in the absence of agreements, but with caveats attached to that information.

Information & Ethics committee  Creation of an explicit necessity requirement for collection, I think, would have to be carefully carried out so as not to interfere with evidence gathering if that recommendation is accepted. When it comes to evidence gathering, we pursue evidence where it exists, whether it's travel information, banking information, information on communications, video surveillance, or other types of things.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Ms. Marcoux. I'll answer in English. When it comes to the protection of information, we also follow the government's policy on security, which that includes a suite of policies on things such as physical security controls, personnel security controls, and IT security.

Justice committee  It could be two dozen, three dozen, potentially.

Justice committee  They would be considered the most serious high-risk individuals on our streets, the worst of the worst, so to speak.