Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm going to be speaking to the issue of the elimination of the Office of the Inspector General. The protection of the national security against threats is of the highest priority, and the men and women who dedicate their professional lives to t

Finance committee  One thing I'd recommend, and I'm surprised not to see, is more cans of Red Bull out here.

Finance committee  It's a testament to your endurance. I got a headache just listening to parts of the last panel. I've had 20 years in the national security area. It's an area that's very fraught with challenges, where you have to have a healthy regard that someone is watching you. Everything's

Finance committee  As I mentioned, it was born out of crises. I was there during a whole series of crises. It's impossible for an intelligence service to define or defend its position in the public, because they'd say, “I can't tell you what it is. It's classified information”. It requires, on the

Finance committee  No, I was happily enjoying my retirement until I saw this bill.

Finance committee  Terrible.

Finance committee  That's correct. I did for about six and a half years.

Finance committee  That's right. I was their chief counsel.

Finance committee  Yes, I was also, for about four or five years, the senior general counsel of Justice who coordinated all the legal advice between the intelligence agencies.

Finance committee  It's the nature of the beast. I've briefed three ministers who act in the role either of Solicitor General or Minister of Public Safety. The first thing I told them was that they are presiding over the ministry of bad news. You have corrections officers who deal with inmates. Yo

Finance committee  I don't know. Let's put it in the following context. We've had recommendations for improvements of oversight flowing out of the O'Connor report. We've had them flowing out of Justice Major's report in terms of Air India. I looked at the most recent reports from SIRC, where they w

Finance committee  It would be a wise course of action. Then you could ask questions as to what CSIS is doing now, what the appropriate model is, or if we're going to give it to SIRC I'm not saying to keep this without something else. I'm just saying that you should conceive of what you think is a

Finance committee  I advised three ministers.

Finance committee  Those are the ministers who were responsible for CSIS.

Finance committee  Pardon me?