Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. Please accept my apologies for the technical delay. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me and for giving me the opportunity to speak with you about an important issue, one that opens the door to many others. Allow me to begin b

Information & Ethics committee  I have three paragraphs left. Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Okay, I will resume. Mr. Dufresne himself yesterday stressed the importance of stressing the public interest or working on the public interest. Trust today is more crucial than ever for both our democratic system, which you represent, and the law enforcement and security agencie

Information & Ethics committee  That's too bad; it was good text.

Information & Ethics committee  Is that question for me, Mr. Villemure?

Information & Ethics committee  I think the RCMP's actions are in fact really important in order to gain and keep the public's trust. The accountability and consultation mechanisms as well as the legal safeguards in place are needed to keep and strengthen that trust. I would say lessons have been learned from

Information & Ethics committee  You would have to be a little bit more specific, but some of the technology of course—

Information & Ethics committee  Other agencies are using it, probably, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I thank you very, very much. I want to bring to your attention the fact that, unfortunately, our society, particularly our democracy, is under siege. We're facing an enormous threat. Probably since the 1600s and 1700s, when the initial concept of democracy started to appear, we'

Information & Ethics committee  Indeed, it has been necessary to surveil parliamentarians, because today, we have officials at every level, whether municipal, provincial or federal, who are in the pockets of foreign governments and are not necessarily working for Canada. Those known as agents of influence are

Information & Ethics committee  It happened before and it's happening now. It's not something new. Foreign agencies have always tried to recruit elected officials. It's not that hard because politicians don't always listen to what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, tells them or they simply di

Information & Ethics committee  Well, the agencies are the agencies are the national security agencies. It's an investigative tool. They need to have it to be capable of pursuing some targets, some very dangerous and serious people. That is one of the tools that is accessible to them.

Information & Ethics committee  I do not have all the details of what kind of software it is or the name of the software at this point. I wouldn't be able to mention it.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't have the details about which one the RCMP is using, so I'm not able to compare.

Information & Ethics committee  To my knowledge, it's strictly on Canadians. Again, this has to be verified, as I'm not aware of all the operational uses.