Spying claims prompt call for oversight
Critics say secretive CSEC needs review as Brazil demands explanation
As Canadian officials worked Tuesday to smooth things over with their Brazilian counterparts following embarrassing espionage allegations, there were growing calls for greater transparency within the secretive electronic spy agency at the heart of the controversy.
Some experts said more oversight of Communications Security Establishment Canada, or CSEC, is needed, especially if the targets of the agency’s operations have broadened to reflect not only national security interests but national economic and commercial interests.
Ray Boisvert, former assistant director at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Tuesday while he remains skeptical of Brazil’s charges of economic espionage, there has been growing pressure on Canada over the years to spy on “friendly nations.”
“They’re doing it to us. Should we do it to them? There’s been a lot of discussion,” he said.
If it turns out that Canada did, indeed, spy on Brazil for some kind of economic gain, then that would warrant greater oversight, he said.
“It is probably time to take a look at it again,” he said. “Time for greater transparency.”
Even the former chief of CSEC, John Adams, called for greater parliamentary scrutiny of the agency — which reports to the defence minister — in an interview with the CBC.
“There’s no question that CSEC is very, very biased toward the less the public knows the better, and in fact it seems to have worked, because you very seldom see them on the front page of the newspapers,” he said.
Julie Di Mambro, a spokeswoman for Defence Minister Rob Nicholson, said in an email that a former federal appeals court judge, Robert Decary, “already provides independent oversight, including independent audits, in order to ensure that CSEC’s activities remain within the law.”
Meanwhile, pressure continued to grow on the Conservative government to answer allegations that CSEC targeted the metadata of phone calls and emails to and from the Brazilian ministry of mines and energy. Metadata is information that can identify whom individuals are contacting, when and from where, in an effort to discover patterns of communication, but does not include the content of those communications.
Some security experts have said it is not inconceivable that Canada targeted that ministry to gain “economic intelligence” to remain competitive.
While refusing to speculate on what potential impact the reports of alleged industrial espionage could have on Canada’s already complicated diplomatic relationship with Brazil, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters at the end of the Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Bali, Indonesia, that “Canadian officials are reaching out very pro-actively” to their counterparts in Brazil.
Speaking in French, he said: “The news regarding the activities of this agency concerns me a lot.”
Harper said his government would conduct “appropriate followup” regarding the charges, which have caused a political maelstrom in Brazil, led by President Dilma Rousseff. He did not elaborate.
The mushrooming dispute between Canada and Brazil is based on documents given to Brazil’s leading television network, Globo, by Edward Snowden, who quit his job as a contractor for Washington’s National Security Agency. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after releasing scores of documents detailing global electronic espionage efforts by the United States and its closest allies.
‘What national security issue is at stake here? … Brazil is a serious business partner and these relations are being affected.’ JACK HARRIS Defence critic, New Democratic Party
The prime minister repeatedly said he was “concerned about this story and some of the parts around it. That said, you should know I cannot comment on national security. It’s that simple.”
NDP defence critic Jack Harris said the Conservative government has to be more forthcoming about what the agency has been up to and why.
“What national security interest was at stake here? … Brazil is a serious business partner and these relations are being affected,” he said. “The government has to come up with the answers.”
The office of Canada’s privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, in 2009 called for greater parliamentary oversight of national organizations with a security mandate.
“With so much intelligencesharing underway, data protection commissioners around the world are struggling to effectively review security programs across a range of jurisdictions and borders,” the office wrote in a submission to a parliamentary committee. “This must happen within Canadian jurisdictions and at an international level.”
A spokesman for Decary, the CSEC watchdog, said Tuesday he could not comment on whether the commissioner plans to investigate the spy allegations in Brazil.
But issues raised in the public domain are one of the criteria Decary uses to determine what CSEC activities he will review, William Galbraith said.
Galbraith said Decary works with a full-time staff of 11 people.