Turmoil at spy watchdog unveiled
Strahl resignation had impact, memo shows
The watchdog that oversees Canada’s spy agency was at risk of seeing its operations grind to a halt after the sudden resignation of former chair Chuck Strahl, an internal memo suggests.
The document, dated Jan. 27, 2014 — three days after the former Conservative minister resigned over allegations of conflict of interest — was obtained using the access to information law.
It outlines the damage that could have occurred had the Security Intelligence Review Committee not been able to meet its legal quorum and do its work.
SIRC, as it is called, oversees the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, the spy agency that collects and analyzes intelligence on national security issues. SIRC has access to most of its confidential information and performs reviews to ensure CSIS keeps to its legal mandate.
Federal legislation requires that the oversight committee have one chairman and no fewer than two other members, to a maximum of five people.
“If we had not had quorum, there certainly would have been consequences for that …” LINDSAY JACKSON, SIRC’S DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH
But the memo from SIRC’s director of research, who is not named in the document, to its executive director, Michael Doucet, discussed how the agency could “re-prioritize some activities in coming weeks” to try to “minimize the impact of recent events” on SIRC’s ability to finish its reviews.
“... although SIRC’s review work could continue, the absence of a committee would effectively mean that none of the reviews could be approved and finalized,” the memo warned.
The “recent events” refer to Strahl’s abrupt resignation, and to the expected departures of members Frances Lankin and Denis Losier, whose terms ended this past winter.
With all three gone, SIRC would have had only had two committee members. “If we had not had quorum, there certainly would have been consequences for that, and we were concerned,” Lindsay Jackson, SIRC’s director of research, told Postmedia News.
The memo also said that SIRC researchers were asked to “down tools on ongoing reviews” and focus on putting together a research plan for next year, in hopes the committee could approve the plan before its outgoing members left. That would mean permanent staff could at least start SIRC’s next cycle of reviews — even if there weren’t enough committee members to finalize them.
Wesley Wark, an intelligence specialist at the University of Ottawa, said what the memo reflects “is the turmoil that had beset SIRC because of the Chuck Strahl resignation, which left them without a chairman — again.”
Strahl resigned over allegations that his work as a lobbyist for pipeline giant Enbridge conflicted with his SIRC appointment.