Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for the invitation and the opportunity to appear before the committee. I believe the last time the Security Intelligence Review Committee was invited to appear before this committee was three years ago. So we're pleased to be

Public Safety committee  We haven't received anything directly from Mr. Arar, but we have received a letter from Mr. Waldman, his counsel. I assume he was acting on behalf of Mr. Arar in making that request to us. I can say to you that the matter is being examined by our committee. We'll need to take som

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  I know it's a matter that may be frustrating to the committee and is difficult for us to deal with, but we're constrained by exactly the same requirements of national security protection as are CSIS in this case.

Public Safety committee  There actually is a specific memorandum of understanding between CSIS and the RCMP about information sharing. It has multifacets to it, including the requirement for the reliability or otherwise of the information to be specified, and also any caveats that may be required with re

Public Safety committee  We did receive a response with respect to that, a response that we probably didn't feel was a satisfactory response in terms of the delay. As a result of that, one of the seven recommendations we made in our report on Maher Arar was specifically to address that. I'm trying to l

Public Safety committee  I believe that virtually every review that's been done with respect to terrorist acts in the world in recent years, starting from 9/11 on through to Justice O'Connor, has suggested that we need to have more sharing of information amongst the security and intelligence agencies of

Public Safety committee  I'm sorry, I didn't answer that question as well to Mr. Holland; I didn't have time. But the fact is that we did our investigation and did not find any confirmation of that allegation, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, so did Mr. Justice O'Connor, that he investigated that and

Public Safety committee  We have the same information as the committee was given, which is that, as Mr. Judd said yesterday to the committee, CSIS wouldn't endorse the letter, among other things because it would mean that the service was denying that a person was a target, and it's their policy that they

Public Safety committee  All I can say is that back at the time we appeared before the Senate committee that was reviewing the Anti-terrorism Act, we did express concern that the Anti-terrorism Act and a number of its provisions did bring the RCMP back into the field of security and intelligence. We expr

Public Safety committee  Coming from a former elected office myself and being familiar with the responsibilities that parliamentarians have to always examine and re-examine policy and structure in view of changing times, I think it's fair to consider a variety of different options. We have the benefit of

Public Safety committee  I know the government is currently in the process of looking at that.

Public Safety committee  Again, much like CSIS, we don't talk about the reviews that we're doing or contemplating doing. I will say that we will be guided, obviously, by any decisions or requests that may come from government, and I'll leave it at that.

Public Safety committee  We always stand ready to do the work we're responsible for. If it is seen as something that ought to be done, then I think this committee would be happy to undertake it.

Public Safety committee  Are you saying with respect to the RCMP or CSIS...?