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Submitted to:

Solicitor General of Canada pursuant to Subsection 33(2) of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act

This is the text of the Inspector General of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s 2002 Certificate Made Public (April 2003) Pursuant to a Request Under Canada’s Access to Information Act
(The 2002 Certificate was classified TOP SECRET when submitted to the Solicitor General of Canada in December 2002)
(The symbol [––] represents classified information removed from the document.)

Background

Section 33 (2) of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act requires that I submit to you a Certificate stating the extent to which I am satisfied with the Director’s Annual Report to you. It also requires that I state whether, in my opinion, the Service has done anything in the course of its operational activities, in the time period covered by the Annual Report, which is not authorized by the Act, has contravened any Ministerial Directions, or has involved the unreasonable or unnecessary use of its powers.

I provide you below with this certification, as well as certain observations made in the course of my Office’s program of review activities undertaken over the last 12 months, and finally, some comments on CSIS capacity in providing analysis and advice to Government decision-makers.

Certification: Director’s Annual Report

I am fully satisfied with the Director’s Annual Report to you for the period 2001-2002. The matters discussed by the Director in his Report are an accurate reflection of the Service’s operational activities during the reporting period. In my opinion, the Service has not acted beyond the framework of its statutory authority, has not contravened any Ministerial Directions, and has not exercised its powers unreasonably or unnecessarily.

I have come to these conclusions after a wide-ranging validation process carried out by my Office of all the statements made by the Director in his letters to your predecessor of July 3 and September 20, 2002, and to you of November 4, 2002. This detailed scrutiny of statements involved a thorough inspection of CSIS internal documents (Branch Accountability Reports) on which the Director’s section 33(1) Report is based, a full review of the voluminous facting documentation on which the Accountability Reports rely, and discussions with CSIS officials.

The validation of the Director’s Annual Report was also supplemented by our annual program of review activities, which for this reporting period consisted of:

  • reviews of samples of warrants and targets undertaken each year; and in this year,
  • detailed examinations of [––] domestic extremist investigations [––] and a counterintelligence investigation [––];
  • inspections of physical surveillance operations;
  • a special study of government security screening;
  • comprehensive briefings on Bill C-36, the operational policies manual, and on resource allocation following the December 2001 budget; and
  • the regular discussions I and my Assistant have with senior management at Headquarters and in the field.

Further observations

CSIS response to the events of September 11, 2001

The CSIS operational response to the attacks in the United States consisted of a dramatic intensification of its investigational and surveillance activities. The Service had positioned itself well to respond by having targeted Sunni Islamic terrorism, including Al-Qaeda, for some time as a priority. In addition, CSIS management showed considerable flexibility and skill in reallocating resources to address the new, unprecedented threat environment. The effectiveness of a domestic security service must be measured not only by its capacity to forecast, with any degree of certainty, specific terrorist events, but also by its response to unanticipated events and challenges. Given the circumstances, it is my view that this response was measured, properly situated within the Service’s statutory framework, and very effective.

The Service’s ability to respond effectively and quickly was, to a significant degree, due to its excellent relationships with Police Forces in major urban centres across the country. These relationships are the result of many years of determined effort by CSIS senior management. They became an invaluable resource after September 2001.

War on terrorism

CSIS has been an active partner with the intelligence services of allied countries in the “war on terrorism”. Some of its contributions in this regard have related to the sharing of perishable information [––].

Non-compliance with internal policies

As I stated above, the Service has not acted beyond the framework of its statutory authority, has not contravened any Ministerial Directions, and has not exercised its powers unreasonably or unnecessarily. Nonetheless, there were four cases reported to me by the Director where CSIS employees had contravened internal policies. I am satisfied that the Service has addressed all four of these instances appropriately.

Format of Director’s section 33(1) Report

This year, three letters to you and your predecessor, taken as a whole, constituted the Director’s Annual Report. The Director agrees that next year it might be useful to consolidate the factual reporting that is required by certain Ministerial Directions in an annex or annexes to his section 33(1) letter.

The shorter form Annual Report which the Director introduced last year is an attempt to provide a more personal and engaging report to the Solicitor General than was previously the case. The objective is to produce a readable Report at a level of detail suitable for a Minister of the Crown, thereby providing more effective support for Ministerial responsibility for the Service.

Consolidating certain factual material in annexes would allow the body of the letter to consist exclusively of the Director’s personal judgment of the successes and failures of the past year, and his view of the challenges, risks, and opportunities faced by the Service in current circumstances.

CSIS mandate and capacity

The primary mandate of the Service is set out in section 12 of the CSIS Act in the following words:

The Service shall collect, by investigation or otherwise, to the extent that it is strictly necessary, and analyse and retain information and intelligence respecting activities that may on reasonable grounds be suspected of constituting threats to the security of Canada and, in relation thereto, shall report to and advise the Government of Canada.

These functions and duties are the Service’s work process, its business, beginning with intelligence collection and ending with a finished product of reports and advice to Government. Over the eighteen years since it was created, CSIS has demonstrated a steadily improving organizational maturity and professionalism as a security intelligence service. The Service recently undertook a comprehensive revision of its operational policies to respond adequately to new Ministerial Directions and, in the event, produced a practical and useful guide for intelligence officers. CSIS has also responded constructively to observations and recommendations made by its review bodies [––].

The new threat environment that the world has faced since September 2001 has raised questions about the capacity of all Western intelligence services with respect to the functions of reporting and advising. CSIS performs well here, in my view, in relation to time-sensitive, perishable information, in the form of Threat Risk Assessments and the like. Similarly, it continues to refine and improve its production of intelligence reports for the longer term, in support of a forewarning function to alert Government to potential risk and threat.

It is my intention, however, to examine this area of CSIS’ activities in some depth with the Service’s senior management and, where possible, help to improve the Service’s ability to provide you and your colleagues with relevant and timely advice.