The federal government has unveiled security legislation that has faced criticism for expanding the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service without added public oversight.
Here's a breakdown of what the new powers will allow and how the legislation will affect Canada's spy and security services.
What the new security measures would allow
Canada's spy service would become an agency that actively tries to derail terror plots at home and abroad – not just one that collects intelligence and hands it off to the RCMP.
The bill would give authorities the power to order the removal of "terrorist propaganda" from websites. It would also create a new criminal offence of encouraging someone to carry out a terrorist attack.
Authorities could apply to a court if they believe terrorist activity "may be carried out." The previous threshold called on authorities to state they believed an act "will be carried out."
The bill extends the length of time authorities can detain suspected terrorists for up to seven days from three and expands the no-fly regime to cover those travelling by air to take part in terrorist activities.
The bill grants government departments explicit authority to share private information, including passport applications or confidential commercial data, with law-enforcement agencies.
CSIS then and now
1985
2015
Not allowed.
Being used, but CSIS won't say where/how
Not allowed.
Explicit mandate in new legislation
No explicit mandate to do it
Explicit mandate in new legislation
Rarely worked with RCMP/Communications Security Establishment
Constant interaction with Communications Security Establishment and RCMP
$100-million
$500-million and growing
Incompetent/ finding its feet
Breaching its "duty of candour" to judges, watchdogs
Pillars of protection
RCMP National Security Criminal Investigations
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Communications Security Establishment
Domestic law enforcement
Threat reporting
Collecting "foreign intelligence"
U.S. FBI
British MI-5
U.S. National Security Agency
The criminal justice system
Ministry of Public Safety
CSIS, Privy Council Office, Department of National Defence, Department of Foreign Affairs, RCMP
CSIS
RCMP
CSIS
Canada
Canada
Everywhere but Canada
Superior Court judges
Federal Court judges in secret
Secret Defence Minister authorizations
"Probable cause" to suspect a crime
Reasonable suspicion of a threat
No threshold
Prosecutions
Government intelligence dossiers
Government intelligence dossiers
170 core employees in unit
3,000 employees (organization wide)
2,200 employees (organization wide)
Appointed "complaints commissioner"
Five political appointees
A retired senior judge
A brief history of CSIS
The RCMP Security Service burns down a barn in rural Quebec to prevent a meeting between suspected Front de libération du Québec separatists and Black Panthers. The act comes to symbolize years of unconstrained "disruption" activities by the Mounties.
A federal commission of inquiry recommends the disgraced RCMP security service be spun out into a highly scrutinized spy agency.
After Parliament passes the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, CSIS spies are constrained by Federal Court warrant processes, an inspector-general's oversight, and the politically appointed Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC).
The Air India terrorist attacks kill more than 330 people, a made-in-Canada massacre that occurred amid fighting between CSIS and the RCMP.
Parliament passes the Anti-Terrorism Act, giving Canada's foreign-intelligence spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment, greater latitude to share the fruits of bulk-collected electronic communications with CSIS.
A CSIS mole posing as a Toronto terrorist is lent to the RCMP, a new template that sets the stage for national security investigations – and the "Toronto 18" bust.
Fearing too much intelligence sharing and warrantless wiretapping, a retired Supreme Court justice urges that CSE and CSIS clarify their relationship.
Another retired Supreme Court justice finds that CSIS's intelligence exchanges with Egypt "likely contributed" to the torture of a detained Canadian.
A CSIS director tells Parliament his spies "have saved Canadian lives" in Afghanistan – highlighting the domestic spy agency's growing number of foreign forays.
The Supreme Court faults CSIS for having unlawfully interviewed a teenaged Canadian prisoner in Guantanamo Bay.
A former CSIS director is caught venting about judges and the public living in an "Alice in Wonderland" reality, in a leaked U.S. State Department cable.
The Conservative government shuts down the CSIS inspector-general's office, one of the agency's two watchdogs.
A Federal Court judge accuses CSIS of breaching its "duty of candour" to unlawfully obtain a surveillance power.
CSIS's remaining watchdog criticizes it for unlawfully carrying guns in unspecified overseas countries.