Public Safety committee  Let me just turn to SATA very quickly, if I could. There are short sections. Section 11 of the SATA indicates: the Minister may disclose information obtained in the exercise or performance of the Minister's powers, duties or functions under this Act for the purposes of transp

Public Safety committee  Skepticism may be too strong a word, and I deliberately didn't say I was skeptical about it. I just said I was puzzled by the degree of enthusiasm. “Huge, huge benefit” is a little over the top, frankly, in a couple of ways. First, referring back to a previous question, this is

Public Safety committee  No. My fear is perhaps shared by many, and it's a fear about where the current American administration is heading on border security and a whole number of issues, like its unpredictability and the fact that it doesn't, at the moment, at least, appear to look at Canada as a very c

Public Safety committee  Very briefly, Mr. Chair, the key here, as you say, is an analytical capacity for CBSA. CBSA, over the years since it was created in 2004, has been growing in intelligence analysis function, but it's still relatively small, untested, and immature. If they're going to have this vol

Public Safety committee  On that, I would say two things, sir. One is that the Canadian federal government is in a good position in terms of data security protection, in the sense that it is able to call in the services of the Communications Security Establishment, which is well regarded as a cybersecu

Public Safety committee  I think I would agree with the CBSA testimony that I've seen before this committee to the effect that the provisions of Bill C-21 will not make the border stickier in the sense of holding back the flow of people or goods. As I see it, the challenge is how CBSA at headquarters is

Public Safety committee  Thank you, sir. It's a good question. I guess I would say that it is a tool. I think it's a modest tool. It's probably not important as some existing tools that have already been in place for some time, like the passenger protect program, for example. It's primarily an investiga

Public Safety committee  I'm sure it could be helpful, particularly in the sense that one has to keep in mind that, of course, it's not impossible to track through various existing means individuals who may be on the move and may be of concern for various reasons to the Government of Canada. You could do

Public Safety committee  Yes, in theory at least, with a couple of provisos. One is that the information flow is going to be massive. In terms of the land border information exchange, it's not in real time. It's in near-real time. My understanding is that the CBSA officials will get batches of data on a

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I thank you for the invitation to appear and testify on Bill C-21, an act to amend the Customs Act. I'm going to read my remarks, in a desperate academic attempt to stay within your 10-minute time frame. Bill C-21 provides statutory pow

Information & Ethics committee  I think the question of safe hands is critical, Mr. Bratina. I would say that a long study of the history and practices of the Canadian security intelligence community, which goes back decades, indicates that on the whole we conduct security and intelligence practices in a lawful

Information & Ethics committee  I should say to the committee that I have testified on Bill C-22 in front of the other committee. To make a long story short, I think there could be some useful amendments to kind of restrict the powers of the government on a discretionary basis and to impose restrictions on info

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Bratina, under Bill C-22, the ultimate discretionary authority-holder is the Prime Minister, and the proposed national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians would be beholden to the Prime Minister in certain instances with regard to the information they can

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Blaikie. I had the pleasure, once upon a time, of meeting your father. I just wanted to say hello. There are various mechanisms in place. We're in the business, as you all know, of reforming and thinking about reforming the system. But the place to start with rega

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Kelly. I appreciate the question. I understand the underlying implications of it. I think that probably all the witnesses you've heard from—including me and, though I wouldn't want to speak on his behalf, Mr. Israel—share the same objective. In other words, we wan