National Defence committee  We have the same—

National Defence committee  Right. We have the same concerns. The commissioner has the same concerns as you're expressing. With recent changes in the United States, for example, the commissioner met with the chief of CSE last month. Is that right, Commissioner?

National Defence committee  It was to inquire whether or not any of the changes, the executive orders, in the United States will have an impact on CSE sharing with its allies. The commissioner received assurances from the chief. We have written and requested evidence from CSE that the long-standing agreemen

National Defence committee  What metadata could include might be a question you would want to ask CSE for the details of. Metadata can include identity information. Not all metadata necessarily carries a privacy interest. That is what we're looking for when we're conducting a review of CSE's activities. I

National Defence committee  It's 14.

Information & Ethics committee  In that, there may be, for example, the issuance of a report that may have had a name wrong or a named Canadian, and the reports will be retracted and re-issued and an assessment made of whether or not any consequences would be expected from that. We're reviewing that on a regula

Information & Ethics committee  If I could just add to that, Commissioner and Mr. Kelly, we review on a regular basis a privacy incident file that CSE maintains.

Information & Ethics committee  I would add that the signals intelligence agencies have an agreement not to target each other's nationals and to respect the privacy laws of each of the five members. That's amongst the signals intelligence agencies.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Blaikie, you raised two elements. One is the sharing of information and how to review the sharing of information between government agencies. The other part is the ability of the expert review process to get in depth into the agencies, as the commissioner stated. However, the

Information & Ethics committee  It depends on the type of information. If it relates to information with a privacy interest and if it is not essential, as the commissioner referred to in his opening remarks, it would be destroyed. It's an automated process because of the extent of the technology employed by CSE

Public Safety committee  If I may, Commissioner...?

Public Safety committee  You're at a very granular level, a very deep level. We—

Public Safety committee  When we determine the activities that are to be reviewed and the priority of those activities, we're looking at risks to compliance and risk to privacy. For those that we go through, we receive the briefings from CSE, and where we identify activities, something like that may be p

Public Safety committee  The legislation sets out that if a minister refuses, or if information is refused to the committee, there has to be an explanation given. Is that what you're referring to?