Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Those are our submissions. I think what we have demonstrated in the course of our report is that Omar can be repatriated and be charged under Canadian law in a variety of manners. His long and arduous incarceration and his youth at the time these alleged offences took place would be considerations that have a bearing on both the prosecution and any conviction.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thanks very much, Mr. Reid, and thanks to the committee for having us. The purpose of the foreign policy practicum for this year was to examine issues surrounding Omar Khadr from two perspectives. The first was to document as clearly, concisely, and completely as we could the factual issues surrounding Omar Khadr, his treatment, the events in Afghanistan, and subsequent events in Guantanamo.

Public Safety committee  On the first point, on the issue of professional responsibility, right now the bill says the individual is not in a solicitor-client relationship. So there's no solicitor-client relationship between the special advocate and the individual concerned, which begs the question, if it's not solicitor-client, what is it?

Public Safety committee  The House of Lords decision was a challenge that, amongst other things, looked at the use of special advocates in what in the U.K. are called control orders, which are basically a form of house arrest. The House of Lords, on the whole, said that special advocates are a compromise.

Public Safety committee  Two changes are on deck right now, as Lorne mentioned. Now, in the new rules that will govern special advocate procedures, there's a more emphatic obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence. There's an affirmative obligation on the government now to reveal all relevant information, including exculpatory evidence, and then in the new regulations there's a point-by-point discussion of the due diligence the government has to undertake to ensure that it has adequately searched its files to find relevant information.

Public Safety committee  That's true, in the sense that in terms of the obligation they have, the SIRC counsel have a sort of bifurcated obligation. Certainly they are there to serve as the arm, if you will, of the committee member in question; yet they also, in the course of serving that role, serve the best interest of the person who's been excluded from these in camera, ex parte proceedings.

Public Safety committee  It's less than three years, probably two years.

Public Safety committee  Thanks very much for the question. The first point to note is that Bill C-3 right now doesn't affirmatively close the door to continued access. It leaves it in the discretion of the judge. A similar rule in the United Kingdom has produced virtually the absence of access. There is no continued access.

Public Safety committee  That's pretty much it.

Public Safety committee  The issue of what's in the possession of the Government of Canada is a crucial one. SIRC has a statutory right to everything except cabinet confidences. What is in the possession of CSIS, though, will vary. I can only tell you this based on hearsay, never having seen it. My understanding is that often we're dealing with an analyst's report, which might be piled on another analyst's report from an allied agency, which in turn may be piled on a series of other analysts' reports, which then in turn might have an extract from some communications intercept.

Public Safety committee  Thanks very much, Lorne, and thanks to the committee and to the chair for having us here today. As Lorne noted, we're proposing a series of relatively minor amendments to Bill C-3 that incorporate these key objections that Lorne has raised. We have tabled a document with you that is essentially an annotated version of Bill C-3.