Conservatives use budget bill to cut spy agency inspector general's office

[Timothy_Fitzpatrick]

Making way for the Mossad?

APRIL 26, 2012
BRUCE CHEADLE - THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - The Conservative government has quietly pulled the plug on an office described as the Public Safety minister's "eyes and ears" on Canada's spy agency.

Spy watchers cried foul, saying Ottawa is abandoning ministerial accountability and oversight of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.

A single line in a massive budget implementation bill tabled Thursday signalled that the office of the inspector general of CSIS is no more. The duties are to be taken up by the spy agency's civilian oversight body, the Security Intelligence Review Committee.

A spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the surprise cut will save taxpayers almost $1 million a year.

"This move will strengthen independent oversight of CSIS by consolidating the responsibility in one agency," Toews' office said in an email.

But experts in the intelligence community say the inspector general, an office created at the outset in 1984 when CSIS was legislated into existence, serves a unique and critical role.

"I think it is significant and worrying," said Wesley Wark, a professor at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.

"It's removing an agency that is meant to serve the minister in a critical function — providing a close scrutiny of CSIS."

The inspector general's role was a recommendation of the Macdonald Commission into the RCMP that helped establish the ground rules for CSIS. The minister responsible for CSIS could not be seen to be interfering or politicizing intelligence, but needed to be kept independently apprised of whether the service was functioning well and within the law.

"It was meant to be the minister's eyes and ears with regard to CSIS activities," said Wark.

Indeed, Toews himself lauded the "important review function" when he re-appointed inspector general Eva Plunkett in December 2010.

"The Inspector General performs an important review function that supports me in my role as Minister and ensures that CSIS is operating within the law and complying with current policies," Toews said at the time.

Plunkett's annual reports to the minister — released under Access to Information in censored form — have been frank and often highly critical, including a warning last year that the spy agency was failing to follow new accountability standards set by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 2009, she had warned of "deeply concerning" inaccuracies in CSIS's work in "key core activities of the service."

Paul Kennedy, the former head of the RCMP watchdog agency who was dumped by the Conservative government in 2009, said killing the inspector general's office fits a pattern.

"What there is is an erosion of institutions that provide some degree of safeguard and assurance to the Canadian public that things are being done correctly in an area which can only be the highest priority, which is the national security of Canada," Kennedy, a former counsel to CSIS and assistant deputy solicitor general, said in an interview.

Wark said he sees a trend by the government toward greater independence and less accountability for CSIS.

He cited the recently revealed ministerial directive on the spy agency's handling of information gained by torture, which effectively gave CSIS the latitude to use such information if the need arose.

"The current government doesn't feel it needs to exercise close-in scrutiny of CSIS .... It trusts CSIS to get on with the job," said Wark.

And that's a mistake, said Liberal MP Wayne Easter, a former federal solicitor general.

"There's no way without that kind of office that the minister can adequately be informed on what may or may not be happening," said Easter.

"It acts as a restraint in terms of the over-zealousness that can happen with spy agencies and security agencies."

As for giving over the duties to the civilian review committee, or SIRC, past chairman Arthur Porter resigned almost six months ago and his replacement has yet to be appointed by the Harper government.

Wark said other recent government appointees to SIRC also seem to lack any background in intelligence gathering or government decision-making.

"There's no indication — and I think no likelihood — that SIRC will get more resources to do this job," said Wark.

NDP public safety critic Randall Garrison called it another case of Conservative ministers abdicating responsibility — and for a negligible saving to the treasury.

"This is a very small amount to save for the amount of problems it might cause in the future," said Garrison.

— With files from Mike Blanchfield


Related:

The Other Side of Deception - Ostrovsky Exposes Mossad viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8540

[Christopher Marlowe]

I wonder how much money GM could save by getting rid of air bags and safety belts.