Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, good morning. I am pleased to be here to discuss issues relating to private member's Bill C-425. As I understand it, in its present form Bill C-425 would seek to provide an advanced path to citizenship for permanent residents who are also mem

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll start, and if Chief Superintendent Oliver wants to comment, he can follow up. The Canadian passport, as you've described it, is an extremely valuable document for anyone travelling. As a result, it is subject to use and abuse in a limited number of circumstances by a small

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we will be able to tag team on this one. Certainly, we have seen in the post 9/11 environment that the al-Qaeda narrative has become more popular, and al-Qaeda itself took significant steps to propagate that narrative, resulting in increased threat. We've seen that for

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I don't know the answer to that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Where I was going with those comments is that we have now a more diffuse international threat, because al-Qaeda-related affiliates, such as al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, now are the sites of power and sites of activity, by and

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's very difficult to define. Individuals who are radicalized are not in themselves targets of the service. CSIS is concerned with individuals who develop extremist beliefs, who are at risk of carrying out terrorist-related activity, or who act in support of terrorist-related

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is very difficult to determine numbers. The director recently referred to dozens—in the range of 45 to 60 individuals identified. It is a challenge because we will get reporting, for instance, that says, “There's a Canadian here”, and we don't know if this is a new individua

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They travel to conflict zones, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, Syria, Yemen. Certainly we see Somalia as well. In those circumstances, they have the opportunity then to engage in terrorist activity. We know a number of them have been killed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of investigating an act of war, we would not have a role per se; we investigate threats to national security. In terms of activities in support of the bill, I'm not sure whether we're talking about the bill as is. As is, we would have very little role.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a many-layered question. We investigate threats to the national security of Canada, so a terrorist threat isn't part of the definition per se. A threat to the national security of Canada is defined in section 2 of the CSIS Act. In respect of investigations, I'm not sure tha

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm in a similar circumstance in trying to speak to ongoing investigations. We obviously hold that information very closely. The level of description that I've offered is about the level of description that we feel comfortable with.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I prefer not to comment on that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think I can say that there are investigations in regard to threats to national security across Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I think there's a range of factors around radicalization. I think the minister pointed out the fact that we've had individuals with post-secondary education who have been radicalized. There isn't a single footprint for radicalization, and particularly for radicalization that