There are many, Senator Gold, and thank you very much for your enthusiastic sponsorship of the legislation here in the Senate.

The bill, as you know, does many things. It’s a big bill. I won’t run through all 11 parts of the legislation, but it creates, for the first time, comprehensive oversight. It creates the new office of the intelligence commissioner. It has strong prohibitions against behaviour that can contribute to torture. It provides modernization for both CSIS and the CSE and it improves the Criminal Code in a number of ways.

All of those elements are important, and taken together as a package, some of the leading independent experts have said that this legislation constitutes the most significant renovation of our national security architecture since the CSIS Act was introduced in 1984.

If you remember, in 1984 a mobile phone was as big as a bread box. The fax machine was breaking new technology. A lot has changed since 1984. One of the critical reasons why this legislation is so urgent is to create a legal and constitutional framework that is up to date with technology, up to date with world security issues that are prominent around the world today and gives our security and intelligence agencies the tools they need to deal effectively with those circumstances.

It’s all important. The one area that I would truly highlight, though, are the changes in various sections and parts of the legislation that create a modern, legal and constitutional framework and appropriate modern legal authorities for an agency like CSIS or the CSE to be able to function in the world as it is today.

It is no longer 1984. We’re long past that and we need a security framework that reflects the realities of the 21st century, and that’s why it’s urgent.