The Americans have the CIA. The British have MI6 – and now the watchdog that oversees CSIS says more James Bond may be just what Canada needs.
The Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) is urging Ottawa to consider creating a standalone foreign spy agency.
The watchdog is so concerned about this that it’s producing a separate, top-secret report for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews on the matter.
As things stand now, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is supposed to focus on national security threats; but it has a secondary mandate to collect foreign intelligence, such as the political and economic activities of other states.
In its latest annual report, the Security Intelligence Review Committee raises concern about the increasing amount of foreign-intelligence gathering conducted by CSIS.
“As those activities have expanded, new challenges from the management of foreign relationships and of CSIS personnel, to securing the personal safety of CSIS employees abroad, have all come to the fore,” SIRC said in its 2009-10 report tabled in the Commons on Monday.
Many other Western democracies use separate agencies for each of these tasks, and foreign-intelligence gathering often requires spies to break other countries’ laws to do their job.
In Britain, for instance, MI6 – where the fictional Mr. Bond works – is responsible for external intelligence gathering.
“In those situations, foreign intelligence agencies operate exclusively in foreign jurisdictions and by definition break the laws of those jurisdictions in order to collect information,” SIRC said.
The watchdog said it doesn’t want to see CSIS forced to manage big dual roles.
“CSIS could become what Parliament never intended it to be: namely, a service with equal security-intelligence and foreign-intelligence mandates. Such a development would … ignore the long-standing practice of respected allies who intentionally separated these divergent intelligence functions to help ensure government control and accountability,” the watchdog said.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’s office said it’s reviewing the report.
