Public Safety committee  Yes, absolutely. CSIS exercises a lot of due diligence in terms of information they're going to pass to a foreign agency that has, for example, a terrible human rights record, and there are lots of them overseas. In many cases CSIS won't pass anything if that person could be subject to all sorts of things.

Public Safety committee  I don't think so, because my take on that, just from what I've read—and it's no different from anyone in the public—is that there were very shoddy security practices, to say the least. That was conducive to somebody possibly committing economic espionage or possibly taking advantage of the situation.

Public Safety committee  It depends on the purpose. CSIS is collecting intelligence all the time. Their mandate is to collect, report to government, provide advice and then do some other activities. They're not hard-wired in such a way that they have to always disclose or need to. Obviously, if it's threat-related, and certainly if it's a physical threat or anything like that, they will do everything they can to make sure that it's disclosed, either directly from them or maybe through law enforcement for something like that, if it's something involving a physical threat.

Public Safety committee  If more is shared or provided to those traditional non-partners.... However, let's forget if there are any changes coming. There's constant co-operation and sharing going on with various entities. You don't have to have a disclosure regime if they're meeting with a municipal police force or a provincial police force or whatever.

Public Safety committee  They have arrangements with hundreds of foreign agencies—security and intelligence agencies, police agencies internationally, in various scopes and ranges of co-operation—so there's a lot of sharing going on, and of course there's a lot of care from a human rights perspective with sharing.

Public Safety committee  I think it addresses it. I have to say, first of all, that I don't have a legal background, so I'm looking at it from a threat perspective, and most of my career was in counter-intelligence. CSIS has their definitions, for example, from the CSIS Act. In this case, it would fall under section 2.

Public Safety committee  That's a good question. Let me start with how it begins. For example, when I was a field officer in the region—I worked in three regions—I would want to talk to someone, and let's say they had an interesting contact with someone, so I would make a disclosure. I would say what organization I'm with and, “I'm Dan.”

Public Safety committee  I have to say humbly that I have absolutely no background on that. I'm mostly a human source guy. I really don't have any expertise on datasets or their privacy implications.

Public Safety committee  I think that's the hope. I think one thing that's saddened me a bit in the last few years, with all the talk on foreign interference in committees and media and things like that, is that some Canadians are going to start profiling communities, which is fundamentally wrong. I think that's why the more education we have, the more we're talking, and the more we have things like this initiative, Bill C-70, and the reviews we've had, the less likely we are to see stereotyping and profiling.

Public Safety committee  That's a good question. I would say, sir, that, yes, the bill does address those, but when I look at the tragedy of what happened with Mr. Nijjar, I see that more as state assassination, state murder. I mean, I'll be blunt about it. We can call it transnational repression, but “foreign interference” is used pretty broadly.

Public Safety committee  I would say that in a perfect world, they would be subject to a law enforcement investigation and a prosecution in the courts. If those foreign agents or intermediaries were in any way tied to this through evidence, I would rather see that sanctioned through our due process and a good prosecution.

Public Safety committee  I don't have a background on the registry. To be frank, in the past I've said that I don't see it as being a great mitigator of foreign interference. I have to be candid on that. I think it will be helpful in terms of buttressing the Lobbying Act and a few things like that. The more egregious acts of foreign interference, and certainly the interference in our democratic processes, are clandestine.

Public Safety committee  I guess the question is whether the individual on campus would be considered a threat to national security. They'd have to meet that criterion under part 2, with the service already them. I guess if something like what Mr. Fung raised came up, and then the service made some inquiries and was able to link it in any way to a foreign state, they would be investigating it.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, committee members. I'm going to talk about the disclosure of intelligence, the new regime that's proposed in Bill C-70, as well as the criminalization of foreign intelligence. I'm going to echo in some ways Thomas Juneau's remarks with respect to transparency, and I do confess we didn't have time to collaborate on this.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, I didn't say that's going to happen. I'm saying I would like to see the leaks stop. That's the reason I'm doing it. I think the leakers are probably playing on that distrust.