Pipeline opponent worries he won’t get a fair hearing
A Hamilton, Ont., man who filed a complaint against Canada’s spy agency is wondering if he’ll get a fair hearing from the governmentappointed body that monitors CSIS activities because of his environmental activism.
Last month, former Conservative MP Chuck Strahl resigned as chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee amid revelations he lobbied for energy company Enbridge, Inc.
At least two other members of SIRC have ties to the oil and gas industry.
“It’s a very unsatisfactory situation that SIRC, that purports to be the civilian oversight body for CSIS, is so compromised,” said Ken Stone, a longtime antiwar, social justice and environmental activist, who has been protesting an Enbridge pipeline project in southern Ontario.
Lindsay Jackson, SIRC’s assistant director of research, said this week she couldn’t speak about specific complaints. But she said in an email that all SIRC members are governed by conflict-of-interest and ethical guidelines administered by the Privy Council Office and the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.
Internal rules also require that a SIRC member withdraw from any proceeding if there is a conflict, she said. Last June, Stone filed a complaint with SIRC after he received an unannounced visit at his home by two CSIS agents who were interested in talking to him about his views on Iran and his travels there.
Stone, who had previously made public statements that were critical of the Harper government’s position on Iran, felt the visit was an act of intimidation. Strahl was assigned to review the complaint. But last month, a report in the Vancouver Observer that Strahl had registered as a lobbyist for Enbridge and its Northern Gateway pipeline project raised questions about whether his work outside SIRC put him in a possible conflict, as CSIS had been involved in investigating security threats against the pipeline.