International Trade committee  We too feel that the UN principles that have been developed over several years now by a range of UN human rights experts.... These experts aren't necessarily focused on trade—because it's come up through the UN human rights system, not through trade bodies—but have had opportunit

International Trade committee  Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning, committee members. It's a pleasure to be back in front of you. It is a time of peace in Colombia, which was lauded by the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for bringing decades of devastating civil war to an end. However, serious, widespread

Public Safety committee  It can be a tough question, but there are processes, mechanisms, and expertise that can be drawn on to make those assessments. It obviously involves careful analysis of law enforcement and security practices in the country from which the information is being received, both in a g

Public Safety committee  If there are serious reasons to believe it has been obtained through torture, and even more so, if conclusively it has been possible to determine that it has been obtained through torture, then in our view it should be disregarded and not used in security and intelligence practic

Public Safety committee  We would propose that other means of investigation be used, not relying on torture-tainted information. Number one, relying on torture-tainted information only encourages more torture, both in the short term and in the long term. It is sending a message to torturers that there

Public Safety committee  Obviously we would always support the stronger protections from a human rights perspective.

Public Safety committee  Exactly. “Necessity” offers better protection.

Public Safety committee  We would totally agree with that. One of the problems we've seen in the past has been the unevenness of the powers and mandate of various review bodies. That leads to confusion and it certainly means that the ability to coordinate review across agencies, which is, of course, one

Public Safety committee  It would be a useful contribution, but it would not be the fix. There's so much more beyond it that is needed, but it is of concern and we, and others, have certainly highlighted that it's peculiar to us actually that here we have an area where once again there are concerns about

Public Safety committee  Do you mean the new definition of threats to security?

Public Safety committee  No, we're still concerned. We think it is still overly broad and it stands in contrast to definitions that are used in the CSIS Act, for instance. There is a number of ways in which that definition and how it interplays with other provisions leaves open the possibility that peopl

Public Safety committee  No. We would definitely support a more expansive reach for the agency. I think we know from past instances—I highlighted some of the cases at the beginning of my remarks—that involvement, responsibility, and even culpability certainly go beyond those operational agencies that may

Public Safety committee  In a very complementary way, I was going to highlight that we too absolutely agree that the need for a much more careful delineation of CSIS's powers, when it comes to threat reduction, is essential. That's why there is this need to enshrine a clear prohibition—and the line absol

Public Safety committee  It will probably not come as a surprise to hear from me that it should be protected in 100% of cases and we always add to that the surrounding context of Canada's binding international human rights obligations as well. In saying that, I think that it's very important to underscor

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much for the question. We did welcome the new directions that came after the earlier statement you're noting, which was our reaction to Bill C-59 when it was tabled in June.