Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. The government would not consider reasonable, or would oppose any attempt to amend this motion. It is not necessary for us to do the job that we’re asked to do — to confirm or reject the invocation of a state of emergency. I hope my answer to you was not taken to indicate that I thought it was necessarily a good idea. I said it is possible that members of this committee could be members of the Privy Council subject to whatever other security clearances.

I want to correct an assumption you may be making. You don’t temporarily swear someone into the Privy Council. Indeed, let me cite for your edification section 10 of the NSICOP Act, which requires:

Each member of the Committee must

It’s not something you dip in and out of. That’s not the way in which the committee would get access to additional information. I repeat, the committee, when struck, will assess what it needs and what it requires. It will make requests and will be responded to in a responsible way.

If I may bring us back, honourable senators, to the position of the government, it is the position of the government that the government has met the legal test set out in the Emergencies Act by virtue of information that is currently in the public domain. The government is not relying upon a “trust me, I know things you don’t know” approach. If I made the mistake — and I surely hope it wasn’t a mistake — to remind parliamentarians that in Canada, there is in fact an intelligence service. There are police services, there are investigations and relationships with our partners abroad that have to be protected. If I made the mistake of reminding you that this enters into the government’s calculations, not only whether to invoke an Emergencies Act but in all hosts of measures, including how we conduct ourselves on a foreign stage, and how we work with our allies, my apologies. The fact remains, there is sufficient evidence in the public domain to more than justify the decision that the government took. It had reasonable grounds, it acted on those grounds and we are seeing the fruits only one week later with a return to some measure of order and to the benefit of Canadians, our economy and our security.

[Translation]