Justice committee  Certainly.

Justice committee  In a sense, you've answered your own question. The essential requirement and the central limitation there is that the persons be peace officers.

Justice committee  In the military there are military police. In fact, we made an inquiry with them just recently. Military police officers have not so far been designated under this. With respect to CSIS, they are not peace officers, nor do they have the power of peace officers in accordance with this legislation.

Justice committee  I certainly encourage this committee to look at it closely. Certainly ideas for changes are among the things that could come up in the course of this review. To respond directly to your question, the types of investigations you're talking about are exactly those for which this law enforcement justification was designed.

Justice committee  We did provide extensive training. Just to respond to your opening comments about the complexity relative to the speed over which I went over the law, the presentation that I provided in essence was an abbreviation of a two-hour lecture. I felt that perhaps two hours would be a bit too long for my opening remarks.

Justice committee  I'll address the last one, with respect to materials. The purpose of today's presentation is just to get this kick-started in the sense of providing an overview, to give this committee a chance to assess its own direction with respect to their review. We certainly will discuss and be responsive to further requests for materials, as are frequently provided for the course of review, but we have handed out very little today just for the purpose of giving an overview of the provisions themselves.

Justice committee  With respect to other hypothetical situations that would be covered under the law enforcement justification sections, the requirement for pre-authorization applies to only two circumstances: when there's a likelihood that property will be destroyed or damaged seriously, or when the law enforcement officer is giving direction to agents in the field.

Justice committee  I will ask my colleague Michael Zigayer to answer your question.

Justice committee  No, that would not be possible under these provisions. They would not receive any justification. There would be two fundamental requirements of the justification provisions that prevent that. With respect to the law enforcement justification, the two requirements are addressed in the handout we've provided, on page 2, in the second and third requirements there.

Justice committee  I'll preface that by saying the law enforcement justification was the subject of a fair bit of controversy when it was enacted, and there has been a fair bit of press commentary on it since. In general, since that time, it is not something that has received a lot of complaint or attention.

Justice committee  I can answer questions two and three. The first question regarding areas not working, or potential issues for amendment, is beyond my capacity to respond to today. I'm here to give an overview and I don't have a specific government position to put forward about potential amendments, but I can certainly respond to the second and third questions .

Justice committee  With me today is Erin McKey, with the criminal law policy section. I'm with the criminal law policy section as well. Also here is Michael Zigayer, also in the criminal law policy section, currently seconded as the deputy director of the Justice Canada legal services unit at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Justice committee  Okay. We look forward to the questions. I'm pleased to be here today to discuss sections 25.1 to 25.4 of the Criminal Code, frequently referred to as the law enforcement justification, which provide a limited justification in law for designated law enforcement officers and others acting at their direction for acts and omissions that would otherwise be offences.

Justice committee  Are you asking whether there will be a French translation of my remarks?

Justice committee  For the time being, this is the only document.