Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. A confidential briefing note obtained by the CBC shows that Canada’s security services informed the Minister of Public Safety, Bill Blair, that organized crime is corrupting Canada Border Services Agency officers, mostly so it can smuggle drugs and weapons into the country.

You can see that this is extremely serious, particularly since we know that the most recent decisions on gun control that were announced by Minister Blair do nothing to address weapons that are in the hands of organized crime. Furthermore, I have to say that, if the Prime Minister had taken the information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service seriously, perhaps the lives of the 8,200 people who died as a result of COVID-19 could have been saved. Leader, can you tell us whether the information related to the possible corruption of border officers was taken seriously and what measures were taken by Minister Blair?

As I’m sure you’re aware, leader, the vast majority of our border officers do a magnificent job. Since CSIS first informed Minister Blair, do we know how many people are working on monitoring our borders and how many people have been investigated for potential links to organized crime?