The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is an intelligence agency that every Canadian and foreign national living on Canadian soil should be very afraid of. We’re told that CSIS (Canada Security Intelligence Service) can’t arrest you, but the show up at people’s work and at home. The problem is that that’s not where they stop.

CSIS was created in 1984 by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act. I have no idea who they are in service for, but it isn’t us. CSIS doesn’t aren’t the spies running around. That’s the job of CSE (Communications Security Establishment Canada). Their kind of spying is Signal intelligence and their mandate is to collect, analyze, intercept electronic signals, such as electronic signals, phone calls, radio transmission, radar and digital data – anything that is suspected to be a threat to Canada. I think that they see everyone a threat to Canada. CSIS is the Canadian counterpart of the American National Security Agency (NSA) that for many years was referred to as “No Such Agency”. They, like CSIS, generally operates outside the rule of law , so accountability goes right out of the window.

 From the start, CSIS was given broad, sweeping powers. In their work, some kinds of surveillance they undertakes doesn’t need a warrant, but others do. For a warrant to be executed, it must first get the stamp of approval by the Minister of Public Safety before going up the chain to a federal judge. Anyone surveilled has absolutely no knowledge about any of this. They also aren’t entitled to appear at the hearing before the judge.

Until 2019, SIRC (The Security Intelligence Review Committee, was an independent body that provided oversight of CSIS’s activities and reported to Parliament and keep them apprised about what CSIS was up to. Apparently SIRC was completely useless and CSIS ran rings around them.  If you are interested, there is an excellent article about this (also pretty funny) called, “Spies, lies and the myth of ‘oversight’ at CSIS” and if you give it a quick read it shows exactly how useless SIRC was.

CSIS likes to visit people in their homes and sometimes at their workplace. An excellent method to catch them off guard. I imagine people who have the pleasure of entertaining CSIS at home or work, they would cooperate to get them fucking to leave. I am sure most people don’t welcome Canada’s top spy agency to show up at work or at home, when you are getting ready to have dinner with your kids. They seem to automatically assume anyone they have set their sights on, is guilty to whatever scenario they cooked up.

You might not be the subject of a CSIS investigation, but if you may have information of an individual who is be prepared. They will show up. CSIS also runs both covert and open investigations both domestically and abroad. It is a hush-hush secret organization. What happens at CSIS stays in CSIS. This makes CSIS less than transparent, much less accountable, until it blows up in their faces. But that comes later. Anyone suspecting they’re on CSIS’s radar, the BC Civil Liberties has an excellent pamphlet, B.C. Civil Liberties Association: The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The biggest take I took from it is don’t not speak to them, no matter how insistent they are, until you speak to a lawyer.

In 2019, Bill C-59, the National Security Act, 2017 received Royal Assent and was a game changer. C-59 was to “clarify and legalize specific techniques that CSIS could use to combat modern  security threats”. Apparently, CSIS was often found to be operating outside of the law. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

With C-59, came with huge changes to how CSIS was overseen and how they operated. Enter stage left, a spanking brand new agency, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (quite a mouthful) and replace the useless, obtuse SIRC.

The new agency was created to operate as a super-agency “with a broader, all of government mandate to review national security and intelligence activities”. Unlike SIRC that was only tasked to oversee CSIS, the NSIRA oversees all of Canada’s security and intelligence apparatus.  It seems a little strange that SIRC, that only had CSIS to oversee and miserably failed, to be replaced by a super-agency was to oversee the whole enchilada, every single part having to do with intelligence and overseeing all the separate agencies. Very big shoes to fill.

CSIS apparently did operate outside of the rule of law. Bill C-59 included limations of power spelling out in bold that torture, cruel inhumane  treatment, detention of individuals, intentionally causing death or bodily harm and violating the sexual integrity of individuals illegal and CSIS couldn’t do any of that.

Here I have to interject. WTF. Wasn’t it already illegal for CSIS to commit any of these acts? Absolutely. All of these criminal acts, engaging in torture/cruel-inhumane treatment, were already illegal, including CSIS.

I gather CSIS needed to have all of this spelled out and bolded for them. Maybe it was to throw upset Canadian citizens a bone or maybe because spelling it out to them they wouldn’t run circles around the NSIRA like they did with SIRC. You’d think an INTELLIGENCE AGENCY would know all of this, but we all know the saying about assumption, “it makes an ass out of you and me”. In this case, as with most, the only ass in the room is the government.

  I guess the government felt really bad about not letting CSIS torture, detain, cause death and violate sexual integrity of individuals, so in their infinite wisdom, they decided to expand CSIS’s power and mandate. What could possibly go wrong? We now know in no uncertain terms who the ass is. Rather than reign CSIS in, they chose to give them expanded powers.

• • • • C-59 anointed CSIS with the power to “collect, retain and use datasets that are not directly or immediately related to a specific threat. It provided a legal framework to
      • Collect, query and exploit publicly available datasets, with strict authorization, data sets containing information on Canadians”;
      • Justification” Scheme for Illegal Acts, which allows CSIS employees (or those working under their direction) to break certain laws while conducting intelligence activities;
      • Refined Threat Reduction Measures: kinetic disruption powers refined these by replacing open-ended powers with a specific, listed set of measures that can be authorized by a warrant;
      • Foreign Intelligence Collection: authorizes CSIS to collect foreign intelligence from within Canada more effectively;
      • CSIS is authorized to disclose information to entities outside the federal government to increase awareness of and resilience against threats, particularly foreign interference.

It’s pretty clear that CSIS beats to its own drum. Regulations and law falls on deaf ears. Our security intelligence agencies, CSE, CSIS and the RCMP are behaving in a mannter that is completely contrary to the principles and tenets of a democratic state. These agencies act with complete impunity. If they don’t respect law, how can we respect our institutions?

I believe people need to take time to watch what our politicians do, not what they say. The proposed legislation, C-2, C-8, C-9, C-12 and C-15, will provide CSIS with additional power that will be difficult to combat. Canadians need take the time to familiarize ourselves with the bills as they go through the process from proposal through to Royal Assent. If you have questions, you go to your MP and ask. That is their job. It is not to showboat or pander to the cameras. Their job is to represent the people. I find there is much support of the current government. But the support is based on a personality and the words of the Prime Minister. Few have taken the time to familiarize themselves about Bills C-2, C-8, C-9, C-12 and C-15 and learn how they impact not only the individual, but society at large.

Blind faith does not protect our democracy. Citizens have a civic obligation to question the government’s motive. Questioning is not the same as undermining the government’s legitimacy. We hear about sovereignty almost daily, but sovereignty is not just about borders. The greatest threat to sovereignty is when a government is considered illegitimate by the people they govern. It supercedes physical borders. It includes honouring indigenous rights. It involves citizens’ faith in our institutions. It involves in the belief that the government is acting a good faith and in the interests of Canadians. I think we have reached a point that the government is not acting on behalf of Canadians, but in their own self interest. Politicians govern, but the heart of the government and the belief in government is the public servants who do their job apolitically, professionally and do so without complaint.