Watchdog approves of anti-terror tactics

Report says spy agency cases on possible security threats ‘all complied’ with policies

OTTAWA— The civilian watchdog committee that oversees Canada’s spy agency is giving a cautious thumbs-up to CSIS for its exercise of newly acquired anti-terror powers under Bill C-51, the controversial law passed last year that the Liberal government says it will amend.

Pierre Blais, chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), said in an interview that CSIS appears to have used in a responsible manner its warranted and unwarranted powers of threat disruption and information-sharing.

Under Bill C-51, passed by the previous Conservative government in 2015, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was given wideranging ability to disrupt or reduce threats to Canada’s national security, inside or outside Canada.

The only limits on the new power are that CSIS must not cause death or bodily harm, obstruct justice, or violate an individual’s sexual integrity.

If any steps that CSIS proposes to take might violate Canadians’ charter rights, the spy agency is required to go to court to seek a judicial warrant for the activity.

In its 2015-16 annual report, tabled Thursday in Parliament, SIRC said CSIS has put in place appropriate policies, procedures and mandatory training to guide its agents on intervening to disrupt threats — “however this is still a work in progress.” The report recommended that CSIS formalize consultation with other affected departments, such as Global Affairs, when threat reduction activity could overlap their areas or raise concerns for their operations.

The watchdog examined all 24 instances to date where CSIS acted to disrupt perceived security threats, and said “all complied with the CSIS Act, ministerial direction and operational policies.” It reported no judicial warrants were issued and no applications for such warrants were refused.

However, it also urged that CSIS develop a “mechanism for tracking best practices and/or lessons learned for all threat reduction activities.”

While overall the SIRC annual report is positive, it raised a red flag about the way in which CSIS routinely collects, retains and uses “bulk data sets” about Canadians or perceived national security threats.

SIRC said CSIS itself had documented a risk of over-collecting.

The report said “a governance framework was drafted two years ago, but that it had not yet been finalized.”