Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney Thursday announced that amendments will come as early as next week to the act governing CSIS, the country’s spy agency.
“We cannot be complacent in the face of terrorism,” said Blaney, who was meeting his provincial counterparts in Banff, Alta. “We are firmly committed to take action against the threat of individuals who become radicalized.”
Blaney said the government will amend the CSIS Act in two ways.
One measure would let CSIS work more closely with its allies in the “Five Eyes” spy network, which is made up of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. This would allow CSIS to obtain information from the others on Canadians fighting abroad with terror groups, and would allow it to help another Five Eyes country track its nationals working with terror groups in Canada.
A second measure would give CSIS informants the same anonymity that already exists for police sources, who are not subject to cross-examination and can have their identities hidden, even from trial judges.
“What we’re trying to do is give our sources a class privilege akin to that of law enforcement,” said Andy Ellis, CSIS’s assistant director of operations, citing a “chilling effect” on informants without such protections.
“They’re going to have to be fairly careful in how they draft this,” said Craig Forcese, associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa. “The devil’s in the details in terms of what’s in the bill.”
Both changes come as courts have slammed CSIS’s approach to investigations.
Last year, a federal court judge said Five Eyes warrants were being used as a back-door way to spy on Canadians, putting them at risk of being detained abroad.
“If you throw some info over the fence, the allies can do whatever they want,” said Forcese, expressing concern over cases like that of Maher Arar, a Syrian Canadian detained and deported to Syria while in the United States. Arar was tortured during his imprisonment in Syria but later completely exonerated in Canada from any links to terrorism.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in May that CSIS informants already have sufficient protection, with their anonymity decided on a case-by-case basis.
Intelligence expert Wesley Wark served as an expert witness in that case, in which CSIS revealed one of its sources had failed lie-detector tests. He said not allowing informants to be cross-examined in secret trials would be “very problematic.”
“The court said (informants) need more protection, but not blanket protection. Why are they going to ignore that ruling and introduce something into legislation?” said Wark, adding that he’s never heard of a CSIS informant’s identity being publicly revealed since the agency’s creation in 1984.
Forcese said police informant anonymity has developed in case law — not through legislation — so enshrining it in legislation will require close constitutional scrutiny to make sure the right of a fair trial isn’t infringed.
Retired senator Hugh Segal, who led the special Senate committee on anti-terrorism, says both changes coming from the federal government seem “quite reasonable” and suspects the legislation will be shaped through criticisms by the Opposition and civil society.
“They should absolutely be afforded ample time to make those concerns known. And of course, you can take it to the bank that somebody will challenge the constitutionality of the bill.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised new legislation on “so-called Canadian foreign fighters” two weeks ago in the House of Commons while announcing Canada would send CF-18s to Iraq on a six-month combat mission.
The government has been touting two messages this fall: that Canada is threatened by terrorist groups, but also that security agencies such as CSIS have already managed to thwart all significant plots.
At a House of Commons committee meeting, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson said his agency was investigating 63 national security cases linked to terrorism and involving 90 people. CSIS officials say more than 130 Canadians have travelled abroad to engage in terror-related activities, while 80 have returned to Canada.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: BY DYLAN ROBERTSON
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