Government Operations committee  Unless there's the possibility that the provinces and the cities are going to interpret the issue of security as local—emergency in the city, emergency in the province—and not national.

Government Operations committee  I have the general opinion that in government there are enough processes and—

Government Operations committee  —I've always held the view that there's a lot of capability in the committees of Parliament. I would say any of the committees has the power to call the minister and ask him the question, have him explain himself.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  I haven't, sir, no.

Government Operations committee  And it's probably American. But that's at the very extreme end of classified stuff. That is really high stuff, and it would be extremely hard to have a discussion on that in any way.

Government Operations committee  Could I speak to that?

Government Operations committee  From the papers I read over the weekend, my general impression is that Canada is the calmest of the Five Eyes in using this. All of the others have a more acute interpretation of security—the Americans and the British, and even the Australians. I don't have any specifics in terms

Government Operations committee  I can't speak to the details of the other government departments in the rest of the countries, but I'll give you a specific example that isn't well known that impacts in this area, which may sort of eliminate the competition. It happens fairly often in the area of cryptological e

Government Operations committee  I am hesitant about the judgment of what is or is not a security issue, which is the responsibility of the executive to interpret, having a number of bodies anywhere, and even a committee of Parliament, engaging in a critique of it. On the other hand, apart from that, all that w

Government Operations committee  I am generally aware it's the same as in Canada. I'm in the other half of the camp. I have confidence in the people and the government, who are working all these issues and have decided that a particular one is an issue of security. There are all kinds of processes in the governm

Government Operations committee  It's a very interesting question. I would approach it from the angle of our talking about issues of security that impact the country as a whole. The spirit of what we have seen and the interpretation of national security, I think, is that it has an impact on the country as a whol

Government Operations committee  I don't know.

Government Operations committee  I would argue against having a definition in print. There is a lot of literature around in Canada now on the general idea of security. There is a policy in place but it's about to change. It is interpreted in a broad way. It talks of hurricanes and floods at one end, all the way

Government Operations committee  I carried out some research over a few days on the policies and other regulations of Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. I found, in general, that our wording on the NSE is reflected in the countries of the Five Eyes in various ways. It's fairly straightforward in Aust