Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Welcome, minister. As I’m sure you know, in 2015, the federal government unanimously passed an act to create the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights. This is a supra-constitutional statute, which means that it takes precedence over all federal statutes. Consequently, all federal departments and agencies must ensure that their enabling legislation, their regulations and their interactions with victims of crime respect the basic principles of this bill of rights, including the right to information and the right to participation.

Do you think the RCMP is required to respect the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights? Is it required to respect acts of Parliament?

Hon. Marco E. L. Mendicino, P.C., M.P., Minister of Public Safety: Senator, I agree. We must protect workers’ rights. I know there is a bill to that effect. We will keep working with all members in the other place to study that bill.

At the same time, I must also assure you that there is a lot of cooperation between Canada and the United States. We share information pertaining to many cases, but we always respect privacy rights and Charter rights. There is a high degree of collaboration between our two countries. I know this because, in recent weeks, I have had productive meetings with my counterpart, Secretary Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security. Our collaboration is very important to protecting border integrity and Canada’s interests.

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