National security committee OK’d
OTTAWA — The House of Commons passed a Liberal bill Tuesday that will establish a committee of parliamentarians to oversee national security and intelligence operations.
Bill C-22, introduced last year, will create a committee of seven MPs and two senators with the power to look at intelligence and security operations in any department or agency.
They would have to have security clearances and would be bound by a secrecy oath, but they would have access to highly classified material.
The bill passed third and final reading in the House by a vote of 166-128.
The committee’s oversight can be curtailed for a number of reasons, including if a responsible minister finds that a review of an operation would harm national security.
The legislation gives the committee a wider mandate than that given to the watchdog agencies that oversee the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP because it could look into all government security operations, not just individual agencies.
The opposition says the bill doesn’t go far enough in allowing unfettered access to material and gives the prime minister too much power.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the legislation “a major boost in the accountability of those responsible for our collective security.”
In an opinion piece published last fall, Goodale said the committee is long overdue.
“The committee will be independent and non-partisan,” he wrote. “Only four of its nine members [seven MPs and two senators] will be from the government. Ministers and parliamentary secretaries are not allowed. It will have the resources to get the job done. It will set its own agenda and report when it sees fit.”
Conservative critic Erin O’Toole, speaking in the Commons last September, said the prime minister is the “controlling mind” of the committee.
“The exceptions and outright control of all aspects of this committee by the Prime Minister’s Office renders it ineffective,” O’Toole said.
The legislation now goes to the Senate for approval.