Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think biometrics is very much a way of the future. Biometrics is something a number of countries have adopted, and I think it's inevitable over time that biometrics are going to become a global standard. I think the dilemma of biometrics is, again, the protection of informati

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My view on detention is that it's a function of risk. If there is a risk, if there is a perceived risk or there is a potential risk, you err on the side of caution. I said this in my earlier presentation, the first responsibility of government is the protection of the nation and

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a difficult question because it's an anecdotal situation. We've had two ships. The question, to me, has to be framed in the context of individual cases. If we don't have any information about an individual, if our agencies and institutions that control our borders feel t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that's a complicated question and a very long answer. The short version I would take on this is, no, I think what we have is a problem common to many countries, and certainly one that we have. We have both systemic and cultural issues that keep information from being mo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have. That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chair and members of the committee, we are most grateful for the opportunity to appear before you. Our point of departure for our presentation today comes from our involvement in the Centre of Excellence for Security, Resiliency, and Intelligence at th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I am a reserve officer with the Canadian armed forces.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not going to take issue with the 0.01%, if you're looking at terrorism. I think what has changed is fundamentally the capability of a single individual to perpetrate very significant acts of terrorism against the country. It's not the number that is critical; it's what's do

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely, sir, and I say this respectfully, your computer in 2001 and your computer in 2012 are substantially different. That's a very commonly held item. The reality is that the threat level has multiplied exponentially, not even in a linear manner. I'll defer to Mr. Platsis

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't determine intent on a five-minute review of a file. If we have a concern, we start with a risk assessment. If we see a potential risk, then what we are increasingly dependent on, in a particular case or cases, is getting additional intelligence until such point as we are

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We shorten the process as a function of the application of technology. If we have common, effective databases, we have a greater capacity to respond externally as opposed to internally. Those databases can be assembled in Canada and made available to those making the decisions at

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Respectfully, the timing issue has to be secondary to the consideration of our national interests. What that means is to ask what other countries do. One of the things other countries do is operate foreign intelligence services, precisely, among other things, for the purpose of g

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the critical variable is how efficiently current resources are used, and how they are incorporated in a common database. My colleague talked about silos. We're not sharing information effectively, so it's difficult to make an informed assessment in the time we have and wi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What I would like to see is more interoperability. I think more interoperability with the current resources would establish our baseline on where we are and where we need to go and be. In my view, that interoperability would focus and centre around a common database—a very well-s

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would think we have few, if any, files on most of the people we cannot identify. That's why we can't identify them.