Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, the first observation to make is that the act was passed in 2003, I believe, and has not been substantially amended since that time. It does call for a significant review. In fact, the director of CSIS has called for that, with some recommendations, on a number of occasions, so it's another area where I think attention is urgent and should be done.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you again for that question, Mr. Chong. What we have recommended—and what we intend to do in the next five months—is having public hearings on these very important questions of whether our systems are adequate and, if they are not, how we improve them in very substantial measure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, in the last pages of the report, we refer to issues for review in the public stage of the work. In particular, we speak about: The role and structure of NSICOP and whether it can be strengthened. Amendments to the CSIS Act that might assist in fighting foreign interference.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is my understanding, Madam Chair, that this process has been initiated by the national security and intelligence adviser. It's a very welcome one. I think there are very important reform initiatives using the experience of other allies, like the Five Eyes, dealing with precisely these problems that we can take and put into effect.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, again—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I should say that my counsel and I spent a very profitable hour and a half or two hours with Mr. Chong going through some of these things. We benefited enormously from the work that he himself has done on this matter and other matters. First of all, NSICOP and NSIRA—assisted by the leaders of the three major parties, I hope—will have an opportunity to review our report, review our conclusions and find out if there is fault in us not assessing responsibility where it lies.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The answer to that question is that the memo that was referred to in the Global News report was an early draft that had certain statements. That draft was not circulated further. There was a final draft that came to quite a different conclusion about what transpired.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, again, thank you for that question. We have set out the reasons why we think a classic royal commission public inquiry would not serve the process of rebuilding trust, but the public hearings that I mentioned will. I come back to Justice O'Connor, following the Arar committee, who said that public inquiries, in the traditional sense, are not particularly useful and can be horrendous in dealing with these kinds of things.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, thank you very much for this question. I want to go directly to our report. There are two parts of my brain functioning here. One is the part that deals with classified information, and the other is the part that deals with open information. It's important that I not cross that boundary.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, again, I must be conscious of the classified information. The memo that appeared in the Global News—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Through the chair, could you be more specific about that package? I just don't have a context for it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I want to be careful in my answer, because I don't have a specific recollection of receiving those specific documents. What I do have is that we asked Mr. Poilievre on four different occasions to make submissions, if he could, and to meet with us, but he chose not to.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, thank you for the question. Clearly, that is our job: to restore confidence. In the balance of our report and of our work for the next five months, we hope to devote ourselves to having as much light as we possibly can on the key issue, and that is, how is our system of dealing with foreign interference working?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I do remember writing that chapter of this book, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, it is true that Ms. Block was my senior counsel with respect to the Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry. I reached out to her to be the senior counsel for this review as well.