Public Safety committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about a very important issue today. As Canada's national intelligence service, the mandate of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, CSIS, is to identify, investigate and advise government of t

Public Safety committee  It's a long definition, because there are six or seven categories. I can provide a copy, if you want.

Public Safety committee  I could provide an example. The problem is more related to the timing than to the sharing of information. Take, for example, what happened on August 10. Had that lasted for three or four days and had it been a counterterrorism investigation—fast-paced with a lot of resources inv

Public Safety committee  I would agree with what Commissioner Paulson just said; it's to have a more informed discussion. For example, he mentioned challenges. What is the threat environment out there in terms of classified information? What is really the threat? What are are the gaps in terms of tools a

Public Safety committee  The same here: nothing. We've been living with the SIRC review for 32 years, so we're used to it. Nothing makes me nervous.

Public Safety committee  Michel Coulombe, Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Public Safety committee  The Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence.

Public Safety committee  It's all of that combined. Ms. Beauregard could elaborate on that.

Public Safety committee  The only thing I'll add is that it's important to understand that the “going dark” issue is broader than subscriber information and encryption. It's that, but it's also intercept-capable networks, and datasets sitting in a foreign country that we don't have access to but that are

Public Safety committee  There is no distinction. We can actually fulfill our mandate, both investigate the device and threat reduction, here and abroad. Internally, the same policy applies. It's all based on risk evaluation. The risk might be higher if it is outside the country, but in terms of the mana

Public Safety committee  They play a crucial role on a number of levels. Having people who have observed signs of radicalization share that information with CSIS or police forces like the RCMP is key. That's an extremely important network for us. The best example of that is the initiative that was put i

Public Safety committee  Well, it depends on what you talk about as mandate. We were able to fulfill our previous mandate, which was to investigate and advise government. What we couldn't do was reduce the threat. Threat reduction didn't have any impact on the mandate we had until Bill C-51, which was to

Public Safety committee  No, the fact that we haven't used them doesn't mean that we couldn't use them.

Public Safety committee  That's correct.

Public Safety committee  Yes.