With the new anti-terror bill ( Bill C-51, known as the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 ) have many expressing concerns about CSIS oversight.
The new proposed bill would give CSIS expanded powers without any expanded oversight.
In 2012 the Gov't eliminated the CSIS overseer's office ( inspector generals office ) in an omnibus bill. It had served as an internal watchdog. The inspector general's final few annual reports had criticized CSIS for an increasing number of errors.
The government did away with an office mandated to oversee the activities of Canada’s spies Thursday, a move critics say opens the door to abuses of power by the secretive Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
The Office of the Inspector General of CSIS played a key role in ensuring Canada’s spies don’t break the law, according to Jez Littlewood, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/26/csis-office-of-the-inspector-general/
Some have argued that CSIS didn't have enough oversight before this new bill was introduced. Peter McKay who once argued that they needed more oversight has now changed his mind and says they don't need any further oversight. But he said that in 2005 and this is now.
A Liberal motion to establish a parliamentary committee to monitor Canada's national security agencies failed in the house last year..
The SIRC ( Security Intelligence Review Commitee ) is the only oversight left that CSIS now has. As the name implies, they review what CSIS did after they did it.
Canada is the only member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, that does not call on legislators to oversee the work of its spy services.
The SIRC is compiled of 4 members appointed by the Federal Gov't.. The law requires at least 5.
Currently the 4 members are ( as far as I know ) :
- Deborah Grey ( appointed April 22, 2013 as interim ))
- Ian Holloway ( appointed hours before the announcement )
- Gene McLean ( appointed March 2014 )
- Yves Fortier ( appointed March 2014 )
Other appointments by Harper were tied to the oil industry, including Frances Lankin. Yves Fortier once sat on the board of TransCanada Pipelines — the company behind the Keystone XL project and some are calling on his resignation as well.
More well known controversies in the last few years include Chuck Strahl , who was appointed chair of the committee in June 2012, resigned after it was revealed that he was also a lobbyist for a Pipeline Company ( Northern Gateway ).
Arthur Porter , also appointed chair of the committee in June 2010 resigned and has now been charged with fraud, conspiracy to commit government fraud, abuse of trust, secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of a crime. I believe he now sits in jail in Panama.
Without some sort of independent or Parlimentary oversight, CSIS could become what the RCMP used to be. An agency that has little oversight and many powers. History could repeat itself without the oversight. Power does corrupt.
CSIS was developed in 1984 because of scandals with the RCMP who engaged in illegal activites and threatened Canadians rights and freedoms. It was to separate intelligence from enforcement.
Currently CSIS is a spy agency with no enforcement powers. When CSIS agents suspect criminal activity, they pass on their findings to the RCMP to investigate, and to lay charges if needed. Under these new laws we're putting the intelligence back with the enforcers. So History ( or our Gov't ) hasn't learned and it repeats itself.
The separation between spies and police came about in 1984, after a decade of nefarious activities by the Mounties, who had run a separate intelligence branch since 1936.
When that branch was named the Security Service Directorate in the 1970s, it targeted suspected Front de liberation du Quebec cell members and possible radicals infiltrating the Parti Quebecois.
In 1972, Mounties burned down a barn owned by the family of a Quebec separatist because they suspected he would be meeting with U.S. Black Panther activists. They also stole a PQ membership list and opened people's mail, prompting the 1977-81 investigation that became known as the McDonald commission. That commission's main recommendation was separating security intelligence work from policing by creating a separate agency, leading to the birth of CSIS.
Officials from both the RCMP and CSIS told the Senate security committee last fall that they've been prioritizing threats because they lack resources to investigate all of them.
Hours before unveiling his new anti-terrorism bill, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he had appointed Ian Holloway to SIRC. Still a member short of what is required.
I would feel a lot better about this if CSIS had Parlimentary oversight comprised of members of all political parties in Canada.
Having CSIS monitored by appointees of the Gov't that also have ties to oil or other major corporations is not my idea of independent oversight for our spy agency.
What do you think?
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Unless each day can be looked back upon by an individual
as one in which he has had some fun, some joy, some
real satisfaction, that day is a loss.
