Public Safety committee  Ten days on the job.... I'll try to measure that out. But 38 years of public service.... Within a portfolio like the one that I now lead, I will work closely with all the heads of those agencies in the development of advice for the government. That would be a key part of my resp

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's a great question, because it is a complex web of activity. We very much take a whole-of-society approach to looking at foreign interference. You noted a number of areas that we look at, such as democratic institutions. We look at the particular communities within the count

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's absolutely fair to say it's not new. I think that—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As long as governments have opposed one another, I would offer. The real shift, though, has occurred in the last five or six years. The more typical activities of espionage—of suitcases full of money, of coercion—are things that we've known about for a very long time, but over t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Largely it was post the 2016 American election, when we started to understand how foreign countries were trying to influence that election. It was a real learning point for us to understand, particularly, what the Russians have been doing. We have paid more attention since that t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The RCMP form a critical part of the team of people who assess activities during elections. They were aware of the information that was brought forward. They have looked at that information and have concluded that they will not pursue a criminal investigation. I know that my col

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The commissioner of elections is an independent officer and indeed would pursue in their own right the ability to look at allegations as they're brought forward.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Indeed, the RCMP would pursue those portions of allegations that fall under the criminal law. There would be a conversation between the RCMP and Elections Act officials or commission officials to look at the corresponding violations that may occur under the act that they would be

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can confirm that the RCMP is not investigating any of the allegations arising from the last election. On the specifics of the first part of your question, I will endeavour to come back, because I don't have specifics on that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's a super important question. The ability to build a trusting relationship with diaspora communities in the country, between those communities and government institutions, is critical to our work. To that end, we engage directly with those communities. I have an advisory boar

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Is it automatic? The community works together. The RCMP are part of the team that looks at this information. They do, in that sense, have ready and automatic access to that information. Obviously the use of that information under the Elections Act or under the criminal law has to

Science and Research committee  Indeed, I think part of the massive improvement is just increased transparency. The increased work that we're doing with stakeholders and with universities in particular and the creation of a research security organization within my department allow us to make a concentrated effo

Science and Research committee  I think part of that comes from paying more and more attention to the technologies. The government hasn't yet released, but is intending to release, a list of sensitive technologies that we want to focus on. We want to make our partners in those areas aware that they need to secu

Science and Research committee  I think that's part of the importance of the framework and the guidance and regulations that we have put in place. It informs and educates the universities on the kinds of indicators they need to look at when they're investing in research and identifying partners. It is helping t