Public Safety committee  Am I getting a little off track?

Public Safety committee  Okay. We can work with the provincial oversight bodies and with others.

Public Safety committee  Oh, I'm sorry.

Public Safety committee  Ms. Damoff, I would agree with Justice Plouffe with respect to every point that he has made. I would also add that there is a constant tension, as you point out, between not just our desire for but our commitment to civil liberties, and also to the protection of Canadians in te

Public Safety committee  It's an excellent question, but I think it goes to the basic role of parliamentarians and review bodies. It's hardly up to me to say what the roles are, but I think you would agree with me that the key roles of parliamentarians are to consider, and if appropriate, pass legislatio

Public Safety committee  There's a very valid public debate on that, but that's not the role of a review body, quite clearly. I just use that as an example.

Public Safety committee  Mr. Clement, your point is well taken, and I suspect that probably all of your colleagues on both sides of the table would agree with you. I can only comment specifically with respect to information that's in paragraph 14(e): information relating directly to an ongoing invest

Public Safety committee  My sense, Monsieur Dubé, is that it's not so much a matter of actual conflict, but rather public confidence. I'll speak for Mr. Evans here, but I can also speak for all of the former RCMP members who are on our commission staff. They're all, I find, quite determined to proceed w

Public Safety committee  It's critical, but as I said earlier, we haven't had to rely on any legal provision to date. I can't foretell the future, of course, but to date the RCMP has been fully co-operative in allowing our investigators full access.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely.

Public Safety committee  The access to information provisions aren't identical, as you point out, Mr. Erskine-Smith. For example, the RCMP Act gives the CRCC somewhat broader access to information on ongoing investigations, in that the RCMP commissioner is required to outline in writing why that would be

Public Safety committee  That is possible, and I would say that the committee will have to feel its way. It may well be that amendments to the legislation could be made now. Over the next few years, you'll see how it works in practice—

Public Safety committee  As a matter of fact, the example I gave dealt with matters relating to ongoing criminal investigations. I mentioned in my opening remarks our review of the implementation of Justice O'Connor's recommendations. In that review, we have had access to privileged and classified inform

Public Safety committee  If I can make one further comment, although the act prohibits the position of chairperson—my position—being held by a former member of the RCMP, fortunately we do have some former senior members of the RCMP on our staff, such as Mr. Evans for example, and because of that, our peo

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My remarks will take a bit less than 10 minutes. I would like to first of all thank you and the committee for inviting me here today as a representative of the commission. Mr. Evans is the senior director of operations of the commission. I welcome the op