Public Safety committee  Of course it's ex parte in camera proceedings. I would imagine that a Federal Court that risks the prospect to be dragged into some international scandal would be even more adamant that there was a necessity undergirding this investigation and it would superimpose all sorts of

Public Safety committee  That was entirely speculation on my part. I don't pretend to have ears inside the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Public Safety committee  I was speculating only on the basis...I was inferring from the context. That is, if you've got CSIS conducting extraterritorial operations, it may violate foreign laws, and that then becomes a matter of the record and suddenly it's on the front page of The Washington Post. That t

Public Safety committee  I believe it is necessary. I don't believe that the arguments that are made that it's redundant have resonance. I think the more eyes on the spies, the better, if you'll forgive my alliteration. I also think it's important to enhance your ability as parliamentarians to understan

Public Safety committee  Structurally at SIRC, ideal membership is five. Even when they are at five, they're part-time, and it's an enormous undertaking for a review of CSIS if you are full-time let alone part-time. They've been at three for some time. As you know, two chairs have resigned in controversy

Public Safety committee  You can imagine that a Federal Court judge confronted with that prospect, and the prospect of being enlisted in an operation conducted by CSIS, would be a diplomatic firestorm if it were ever revealed. That Federal Court judge, I think, would be quite anxious to make sure that CS

Public Safety committee  It's a bit of a mixed bag. Not purporting to have reviewed in detail the laws of hundreds of foreign countries, I would say this bill is unique in the degree to which it emphatically now authorizes a judicial officer to allow a Canadian executive agency to violate foreign law. I

Public Safety committee  That would be a question of—

Public Safety committee  Well, it's not sufficiently emphatic to constitute a use of section 33 of the Charter of Rights. It's not an override of the charter. Presumptively, “any other law” would include the bill of rights, although, again, I'm not sure if it's sufficiently emphatic there. My reading of

Public Safety committee  No. There's the historical context; that is, the Federal Court cases that are the genesis of this bill have dealt with extraterritorial surveillance. But of course the CSIS mandate in section 12 is not confined to surveillance, covert or otherwise. Of course, we do have instanc

Public Safety committee  Yes, the CSIS Act, in its present form, indicates that the government or CSIS needs to obtain a warrant where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such a thing is necessary, which is essentially coded language for saying where there's a charter interest in play under sect

Public Safety committee  I think it should be clearer; it should be more definite. Yes, absolutely.

Public Safety committee  Thanks very much, and thanks to the committee for asking me to testify today. I'm going to focus exclusively on the foreign surveillance aspects of the bill that is before this committee. Later today Professor Kent Roach will be appearing before you and he will be speaking to t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  He was there before 2002. The facts are opaque here. His location during the period 2001 through the summer of 2002 is not publicly available. He was certainly there, however, earlier than 2002.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We don't have that kind of information. That information might be in the possession of the passport authorities, from renewal of passports and that sort of data. What we have is that in 1996 through to 2001 the Khadr family is said to have travelled through Afghanistan and Pakist