Public Safety committee  Consistent with what Mr. Mendicino mentioned, the effect of adding the word “operational” would be to narrow the scope. We'd have to think about how it would relate to point 16, which also deals with the same sort of activities.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  It covers the same sort of territory, and more cleanly. The worry that we have with “operational” is that it has components of activity in it, and it's just vague and unclear to us. It's interpretation.

Public Safety committee  Yes, but there it has some specific language attached to it that makes it clear.

Public Safety committee  The other thing we would note is simply that the word “activity” is used throughout the act, so if you're going to change it here, then you might need to change it everywhere.

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  The intent was really more on the focus, as it says, of “injurious to national security”. As Minister Goodale said to this committee earlier, it's intended not to be used very often, but the focus really is whether there is injury to national security. You've cottoned on to the

Public Safety committee  Where you would find what?

Public Safety committee  It's in the construction of it as a whole.

Public Safety committee  No.

Public Safety committee  I really hesitate to do this. An operation tends to have a specific duration attached to it, and it tends to have a specific goal. An activity could be general strategic planning of a department. That's an ongoing activity. That's an activity they do all the time, but it's not a

Public Safety committee  Yes. In fact, that's the intention. Given the highly sensitive information that the committee will be receiving, it's necessary to circumscribe parliamentary privilege. They've done it in a contained way, and that's outlined in the clause.

Public Safety committee  I think it is, yes.

Public Safety committee  If I can just build off one thing, it's easy to be lost in the amendments and the clauses, but just observe that this would be the biggest change in a generation to the intelligence review system in Canada. This is something big and important, and part of what would make it a suc

Public Safety committee  I think— Oh, sorry.