New watchdog agency to keep eyes on the spies
Security law would give group more power for cyber-warfare and oversight of CSIS, CSE
OTTAWA— Cyberwarfare. Data sets. Terrorist disruption powers. Welcome to a brave new world of Canada’s efforts to counter terrorism abroad and at home.
With the National Security Act 2017, the Liberal government wants to empower Canada’s ultra-secret electronic spies at the CSE — Canada’s counterpart to the Americans’ NSA — to operate offensively in foreign cyberspace. But there will be more watchful eyes on the spies here at home.
The sweeping new bill introduced Tuesday proposes a new superwatchdog agency to review all national security and intelligence players and to put CSE and CSIS under tighter ministerial and judicial control. Overall, the legal and constitutional framework for Canada’s national security actors would dramatically change.
The showpiece is a proposal to establish a big watchdog agency to be called the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency with broad powers and government-wide authority. It would replace two other watchdog offices that until now were more narrowly focused on CSIS and CSE alone.
It would be able to compel testimony and documents from 17 federal agencies and departments who have national security responsibilities, including for the first time the Canada Border Services Agency. It would have responsibility to oversee the cyberspies at the Communications Security Establishment, or CSE, the traditional spooks at Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, or CSIS, the Mounties, the border guards at CBSA, aviation and transport authorities at Transport Canada, the department of Immigration, Refu- gees and Citizenship as well as the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or Fintrac.
Only the RCMP’s civilian review and complaints commission would remain in place, but the RCMP’s national security activities would be reviewed by the new agency, to be known as NSIRA.
However, the bill does not entirely ditch the controversial terrorism disruption powers CSIS got under the last Conservative government. Rather, it proposes to explicitly define and limit those measures that CSIS would be allowed to employ.
With judicial authorization, CSIS agents would be limited to actions such as disrupting or destroying a terror suspect’s communications, documents, equipment, financial transactions; or faking documents, interfering with a person’s movements, or impersonating an individual other than a police officer.
The key, Goodale said, is that CSIS would have to first see whether another agency — such as the RCMP — is better placed to act; and a court would only approve any CSIS action that infringes on a Charter right if CSIS shows it is a reasonable limit on the right.
The Liberal government was quick to claim it struck just the right balance.
“Canadians expect their governments to do two things: protect our communities and uphold our rights and freedoms. Getting that balance right has always been the focus of the Liberal Party, and that’s exactly what we’re focusing on doing in government,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
The proposal for a massive new national security review agency would address criticism by several judicial inquiries and parliamentary committees that the national security apparatus operates in silos.
“The stovepipes are gone,” said Goodale.
“The NSIRA — whatever . . . I have to get used to the new acronyms — it will have complete jurisdiction” to examine activities of CSE, whatever they are, along with other actors in the national security field.
Introduced by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, the bill would establish new rules around the collection and storage of personal data by CSIS. And it sets up an independent Intelligence Commissioner to be a sober second set of eyes on warrants requested by CSIS and the CSE, and approved by ministerial authorization.
But reforms will not go far enough for many.
Michael Vonn, of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, said the super-watchdog agency is “long overdue and urgently needed.” But Vonn said the rights advocacy group “remains disappointed that so much” of the old Conservatives’ law is intact.
On the “no-fly” list, Goodale said the federal government eight years ago made a mistake when it piggybacked the passenger records systems of airlines, instead of creating a standalone government database that was interactive and where mistakes could be quickly remedied.
Overall, the Liberal government guesses the cost will be $97 million, with about $70 million of that new money and the rest reallocated from existing watchdog agencies.
The bill does not entirely ditch the controversial terrorism disruption powers CSIS got under the last Conservative government