Public Safety committee  Actually the definition of “activity that undermines the security of Canada” took into account the concepts of national security relevant to the 17 recipients, so we made sure that the elements of the CSIS definition were included in clause 2 so they could receive information und

Public Safety committee  I think it's very important to continue to consider the examples and the definition in light of the chapeau. The test in the definition is actually included in the chapeau, so therefore “an activity that undermines the security of Canada” is an activity that undermines the sovere

Public Safety committee  When the definition was crafted, all existing definitions in law were studied and taken into account. It was considered that we should not constrain the definition to legal interpretations that are associated with other statutes because they were brought into force in very specif

Public Safety committee  When a provision begins with “for greater certainty”, it announces that the intention is not to modify anything in law or indicates that the act does not affect or does not.... It essentially states what is already the case. Usually these clauses are included for transparency and

Public Safety committee  It doesn't restrict anything. That is the effect of the “For greater certainty...”. What we're really trying to do through this provision is to express that existing rules and existing law pertaining to use and further sharing of information continue to apply as they are. Therefo

Public Safety committee  Actually, I think the act was developed in the study of the Privacy Act, and both work together. Clause 5 already explicitly states that, “Subject to any provision of any other Act of Parliament, or of any regulation made under such an Act, that prohibits or restricts the disclos

Public Safety committee  We can confirm that it is still possible. The section protects persons, so employees of the government, but not the crown. There could still be proceedings against the crown.

Public Safety committee  No, actually, in this case it's an exception in law. The authorities come from a crown prerogative and they are codified in the Canadian passport order. It's important to mention that there are sections in the Canadian passport order that say that these ministers may exercise cro

Public Safety committee  No. Crown prerogative is part of the common law.

Public Safety committee  Well, as an order in council, it's under the Governor in Council's prerogative to codify, but the authorities themselves exist in the common law at this time.

Public Safety committee  That's exactly right. Proportionality would mostly come into play when a judge is considering the justifiability or whether taking a certain action is justifiable under the charter. In the context of the bill before us today, a judge would mostly look at whether the decision of

Public Safety committee  Just to complete my colleague's answer, because there is no legislation on passports we are creating here a stand-alone act. That was deemed the best solution to put these sections in. We didn't find a better place to fit them under, so they get their own act. This act accompanie

Public Safety committee  The process is spelled out in two different places. The Canadian passport order states that in the context of a passport cancellation the individual can apply for reconsideration. The procedure for that is not spelled out in detail. However, the Department of Public Safety will

Public Safety committee  The only response I can provide is that the courts have provided us with plenty of decisions on procedural fairness, so the government will be following the guidance provided by the courts on that topic.

Public Safety committee  No, this definition was not explicitly included. We are using a much shorter format in this case. We're simply talking about national security, as in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, for example. The expression “national security” will therefore be interpreted based on