Parliamentary intelligence committee examines Canada’s overseas spying capacity

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is examining the effectiveness of Canada’s foreign intelligence collection as debate continues over establishing a new overseas spy agency. The committee, made up of MPs and senators, announced the review in a brief June statement. Its secretariat would not provide details on the review’s scope, timeline or possible findings, and declined to make chair Darren Fisher, a Liberal MP, available for an interview. A recent academic paper on the decades-long debate over creating a Canadian foreign intelligence agency was to be included as background material.

Records recently released by Public Safety Canada under the Access to Information Act indicate cabinet ministers have been briefed on expanding Canada’s capacity to collect and act on foreign intelligence. The Communications Security Establishment gathers foreign intelligence electronically, Global Affairs Canada provides diplomatic reporting and the military collects defence-specific intelligence. CSIS may gather intelligence in Canada and abroad on threats such as terrorism and espionage, but may collect foreign intelligence about foreign people, organizations and states only within Canada, not overseas.

A CSIS memo prepared last year said demand for foreign intelligence could grow amid an uncertain geopolitical environment. It said Canada’s present collection capabilities and authorities are limited, and that the country has historically relied on allied partnerships for some foreign intelligence reporting. Proposals for a Canadian foreign intelligence service have been debated since the end of the Second World War.

The review comes as the Carney government prepares Canada’s first national security strategy in more than two decades. Briefing materials prepared in February for Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the strategy would aim to build autonomy and resilience to help Canada adapt to unexpected changes, and would for the first time recognize economic security as central to national security.

During the 2006 election campaign, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives promised an agency that would collect intelligence overseas and independently counter threats before they reached Canada, but it was never created. Political strategist and lobbyist Goran Samuel Pesic, who worked on the issue in 2007 as an adviser to then-public safety minister Stockwell Day, said successive governments had avoided creating a dedicated service because public servants said it was unnecessary and because of cost. He said a foreign intelligence service could support sovereignty and national interests, while questions about its mandate, relationship to existing collection systems and long-term funding would remain political decisions.