Global Courant 2023-05-13 15:02:18
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Author of the article:
The Canadian Press
Jim Bronskill
Published on May 13, 2023 • read for 4 minutes
The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) complex is pictured in Ottawa on Oct. 15, 2013. A culture within Canada’s cyber-espionage agency of “resisting and hindering” independent review has frustrated efforts to ensure it complies with the law, say newly declassified documents from the federal intelligence watchdog. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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OTTAWA — A culture within Canada’s cyber-espionage agency of “resisting and obstructing” independent scrutiny has frustrated efforts to ensure it complies with the law, recently declassified federal intelligence watchdog documents say.
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The unusually candid 2021 National Security and Intelligence Review Agency data is the latest evidence of the watchdog’s irritation at trying to scrutinize the activities of the Communications Security Establishment.
The CSE and the spy watchdog say progress has been made in recent months towards smoother relations.
The Ottawa-based CSE monitors foreign communications — from email and phone calls to text messages and satellite transmissions — for information of interest to Canada. It also secures Canadian computer systems and engages in cyber operations to counter threats from abroad.
The agency is a key element of the intelligence-sharing network known as the Five Eyes: Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
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The review agency, known as NSIRA, was established in 2019 and took over responsibility from another agency for investigating the cyber-espionage agency to ensure respect for Canadians’ privacy and overall compliance with the law.
The documents say that “longstanding and systemic problems have compromised NSIRA’s ability to properly and adequately assess national security activities at CSE,” adding that the problems were due in part to “a greater culture of defiance and impediments to the efficient progress of assessment activities.”
The rating agency released the internal documents late last month under the Access to Information Act to Bill Robinson, a senior fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab who has studied the CSE for some time.
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In December 2021, Robinson asked the rating agency for several documents, including correspondence describing CSE cooperation with the watchdog’s requests for information related to its activities.
The documents show that in January 2021, a member of an assessment agency expressed concern to the then Defense Minister, Harjit Sajjan, that the relationship with CSE was not up to expectations.
An assessment agency report on the conversation said, “There was an emphasis on the lack of access to CSE information and delayed response times to NSIRA requests for information.”
The agency sought direct access to certain CSE databases so that it could independently verify intelligence information and conduct its own searches in a timely manner.
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Delays in receiving information added about three months to the typical time frame for completing an assessment of a CSE program or activity, the watchdog said.
“In short, CSE’s approach to Review requires a cultural shift, one that dispels resistance, clouding and defensiveness, emphasizing instead collaboration, transparency and positive engagement,” says a briefing note in late 2021.
“Somewhat frustratingly, our two organizations have found different views on how to achieve the goal of ensuring reliable and auditable provision of timely and accurate information.”
Given the challenges experienced so far, the rating agency’s note adds, “the relationship is currently bad.”
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Overall, the difficulty “negatively impacts our ability to fulfill our mandate and assure Canadians of the transparency and accountability of CSE’s operations.”
Robinson said in an interview that the watchdog’s frustrations are concerning given that working with reviewers is part of the intelligence agency’s job. “Review is an essential part of how we ensure that these agencies continue to function properly and that they protect the rights of Canadians.”
When asked about the concerns, the CSE said it has been working with the rating agency over the past year to make two notable changes.
Firstly, the CSE has restructured its assessment coordination to better support the work of NSIRA, and secondly, the parties have agreed on a pilot project that gives the assessment body independent access to CSE files related to assessments. This program started in March 2023.
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The CSE insists that even before these changes, it complied with all requests for information from NSIRA.
In 2022-23, the CSE supported 17 independent assessments by the assessment agency and held dozens of meetings and briefings with assessment staff, the cyber-espionage agency added.
In an interview, Nabih Eldebs, CSE’s deputy head of compliance and transparency, said he would attribute the differences to “growing pains” of the two organizations as they came to understand each other.
He added that there is “clearly an intention within CSE” for the relationship to succeed “and we have worked hard to do that.”
In a statement, the rating agency said the CSE has “enhanced its efforts to facilitate NSIRA’s access to information” in recent months.
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“While there are still challenges, we continue to work with CSE and hope that the remaining issues can be overcome.”
Daniel Minden, a spokesperson for Defense Minister Anita Anand, the cabinet member responsible for the CSE, said the minister “takes NSIRA’s assessments extremely seriously and is committed to ensuring that NSIRA has the access it needs to fulfill his mandate.”
“Minister Anand will continue to support NSIRA’s mandate to conduct expert, independent assessment of security and intelligence activities – and has met with NSIRA leadership on this mission.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 13, 2023.
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