Canada-China Relations committee  We have a very fruitful dialogue that's been established for many years now with the universities. It's led by ISED, and Public Safety and CSIS participate. It's the perfect platform for educating academics and universities on the threat landscape. It's been a slow evolution, but we're seeing some tangible results, and universities are investing much more in the security of research.

Canada-China Relations committee  We know the Russians are using disinformation to sow chaos. They are sending competing information, different news and divisive information. They are very active in that space. Their technological capabilities are evolving. Now that AI is cheap and widely available, we can know for sure the Russians are going to continue to use it, as will other known powers.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. The list of entities is one of two components of the policy statement. The first concerns sensitive research areas and the second deals with problematic entities. As you can imagine, compiling a list of such complexity isn't straightforward. We need to make sure we talk to our security partners, as well as the universities.

Science and Research committee  I'm not in a position to answer that question.

Science and Research committee  From what we understand, there is no direct funding of universities, but there could be some private funding.

Science and Research committee  I do not have a complete inventory of all existing research partnerships with Canadian universities. I am therefore not in a position to answer that question directly. In fact, that's not necessarily Public Safety Canada's role. Our role is really to ensure that we have the right methodology in place to determine which sensitive technologies to protect and which foreign entities represent a risk to Canada's national security.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. Of course, the 2004 national security policy is probably in need of renewal, but that doesn't necessarily mean that national security agencies and the government aren't focusing on relevant threats. A great deal of effort has been made over the years to change our stance and see that we have adequate funding, which allows us to defend against this threat.

Science and Research committee  Obviously, we'd like to have a unified national security policy, but that doesn't mean we don't have good guidance or…

Science and Research committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, honourable members of the committee. My name is Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère. I'm the associate assistant deputy minister for national security and cybersecurity at Public Safety. Research security is part of the portfolio that I oversee. I'd like to thank you for inviting me here to speak on such an important issue affecting Canadian research.