Public Safety committee  Yes. To add to what Mr. McGuinty said, the committee looked at its counterpart, the ISC, as well, but it felt very strongly, based on the studies, that the more language skills an organization has, the more community contacts—the more cultural competencies, for example—the better

Public Safety committee  You're right, Mr. Kurek, in the sense that we did not come across or find an overall threat assessment produced by the government on foreign interference. In fact, one of our major findings, one of our major recommendations, is that this be included as part of any government thre

Public Safety committee  Sure. Getting back to your question about CSIS, for an investigation to be initiated for foreign interference, it has to be very clearly presented or seen as detrimental to the interests of Canadians and Canada, and of a clandestine or deceptive nature. Any activity that const

Public Safety committee  I hope that answers your question.

Public Safety committee  Yes, absolutely. We did not get a response from the minister. In the course of our review, we did indeed note that ministerial directives were lacking, but we did not receive a response as to why they were not issued.

Public Safety committee  May I add something, Mr. Chair?

Public Safety committee  Thank you. Just to add to what Mr. McGuinty said, I think it's important to point out that the time frame for our review was from January 2015 to August 2018. The material we received reflects the findings and the status of the recommendations in our report. I think we do poin

Public Safety committee  I would be happy to. The purpose of the review was twofold. The first objective was to gain a clearer statistical understanding of diversity and inclusion across the security and intelligence community, as Mr. McGuinty mentioned. The second objective was to identify the departme

Public Safety committee  It's easier for me to—

Public Safety committee  Yes. I think it's because CSIS operates within very precise references and direction, so the more precision they get, the better it is for the officers in a region to collect. I think that's what we were trying to refer to.

Public Safety committee  This problem is related to the redaction process. You can't just cross out the information in a document and then transfer it to a computer or on the web. In fact, copies and photocopies must be made before they are posted on the website.

Public Safety committee  Yes. We share your frustration, Mr. Dubé.

Public Safety committee  They're able to collect intelligence if they have a legally mandated authority to deploy forces on a mission, whether it's in Canada in support of the RCMP or CSE for example, or on a mission abroad. They can collect in support of a mission wherever it is.

Public Safety committee  As I think I mentioned earlier, it's a question of the departments, particularly those that are not subject to regular review, getting used to providing information, the relevant information, to the committee. In some cases, it's perhaps about the secretariat needing to be more

Public Safety committee  One of the reasons we didn't look at the upcoming election in terms of foreign interference is that the government—they informed us—was doing so much work in terms of assessing the threat and then taking action to prevent the threat of foreign interference.