Watchdog wants rules for spies sharing info

Federal privacy commissioner says safeguards are needed for Canada’s security agencies

OTTAWA— Other national security agencies may be taking the same broad view of the law that led CSIS to illegally keep data on innocent people for almost a decade, the federal privacy watchdog says. Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said he’s calling on Parliament for clearer rules about how spy- and law-enforcement agencies obtain, retain and destroy information on Canadians.

Therrien said information-sharing powers granted in Bill C-51, the former Conservative government’s controversial spying bill, need restrictions on what agencies can share and how long they can keep the information.

“Security agencies, with (Bill C-51 powers) and with the absence of rules around retention, for instance, would be able to collect and retain information that they don’t really need,” Therrien told the Star outside a House of Commons committee Tuesday.

“I don’t dispute that CSIS needs to analyze information in order to do their job . . . but once the analysis has been completed and the vast majority of people about whom they’re collecting information are found not to be a threat, and that’s the case, then they should destroy that information.”

“I don’t think that’s the kind of country we want, where the security services of the country hangs onto information on vast amounts of people in case it might be helpful one day,” Therrien added.

In his testimony before the access to information, privacy and ethics committee, Therrien noted Canadian spy agencies misusing powers is not a “theoretical” issue.

He noted that CSIS was recently found by a federal court to have illegally kept data on an unknown number of innocent Canadians between 2006 and 2015.

The program, which stored information on “non-threat” individuals obtained through lawful intercepts, was created and operated without the court’s knowledge.

In a press conference with reporters earlier this month, CSIS director Michel Coulombe said the agency believed it was operating within the rules at the time, but accepted the court’s ruling.

Therrien also noted the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the country’s electronic spy agency, was found earlier this year to have illegally transferred Canadian metadata to close security partners. The CSE, and its independent review body, found that the transfer was not intentional and the result of a technical glitch.

“I’m not saying that government officials involved in national security are in bad faith and look to do surveillance on the population, but the safeguards are insufficient,” Therrien told the committee.

“We have seen, in the recent past, when there has been excessive, sometimes unlawful, collection or retention of information . . . These are not theoretical risks. These are real things, real concerns.”

Therrien’s comments come as the governing Liberals are in the midst of a wide-ranging review of Canada’s national security agencies and issues of oversight for spies.

They also come as Canada’s national police force, the RCMP, are publicly arguing for expanded investigative powers in the online world.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the minister looks forward to the Commons committee’s report on Bill C-51’s information-sharing powers and appreciates Therrien’s insight into these issues.