Reporting Requirements - Annual Report 2003-2004

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Section 2.B Reporting Requirements

Annual Report 2003-2004 - An Operational Review of CSIS Activities

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B. Reporting Requirements

Section 33(1) of the CSIS Act requires the Director to submit to the Minister and Inspector General, at least annually, a report on the operational activities of the Service. The Inspector General, after receiving the Director's report, is required to submit to the Minister a certificate explaining the extent to which the Inspector General is satisfied with the report. The Minister is then required to submit the Director's report, and the Inspector General's Certificate, to SIRC.

SIRC is required to review the Director's report and the Inspector General's Certificate under section 38(a)(i) of the CSIS Act. Historically, this examination has allowed the Committee to identify potential areas for future research and review. This year's review identified a number of topics of interest to the Committee. These will be included in our research plan for 2004–2005.

We also use the Director's report and the Inspector General's Certificate to make yearly comparisons of CSIS activities and to assess the performance of existing and new programs and sectors.

In this section, we review the Director's report and the Inspector General's Certificate, and note other CSIS reporting requirements.

CSIS DIRECTOR'S ANNUAL OPERATIONAL REPORT FOR 2002–2003

The Director's report summarizes the achievements realized and challenges encountered by the Service in the course of fulfilling its operational mandate, and information on each of the Service's key functions.

The 2002–2003 report describes in global and specific terms some of the opportunities and challenges faced by CSIS during that fiscal year.

As a result of legislative amendments by the Canadian government, the Director also reported on increased interdepartmental, domestic and international co-operation as well as new measures to fight terrorism, including the Terrorist Entity Listing process. The Director reported that all of these activities placed increased demands on Service resources.

During the period under review, the Service created the Counter Proliferation (CP) Branch, incorporating elements from two existing branches, in order to improve its efforts to investigate state-sponsored terrorism, as well as the foreign interference and espionage activities of specific foreign governments. The CP Branch also investigates proliferation activities, and contains the Integrated National Security Assessment Centre, created to allow the dissemination of information and intelligence between federal agencies with responsibilities in national security. The Director also reported on the creation of a unit within the Counter Terrorism Branch designed to provide the Government of Canada with intelligence on the nature and extent of a specific terrorist activity in Canada.

The report describes other new initiatives designed to provide timely assessments of specific threats to federal agencies that are involved in national security. These measures aim to prevent threats to national security or disrupt them at the earliest possible stage.

In addition, for each of the Service's branches, the report identifies the focuses of investigation, including specific threats, targets, priorities and operational activities. The report provides details about the Service's human source program, and includes a description of the program's compliance with Ministerial Direction and the National Requirements of the Government of Canada.

The developments cited in the 2002–2003 report—the creation of a new branch, increased domestic and international co-operation, the unrelenting threats from specific terrorist organizations—provide CSIS with continued operational challenges and opportunities. We will continue to monitor closely and assess these matters.

CERTIFICATE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR 2003

The Inspector General of CSIS reports to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and functions, in effect, as the Minister's internal auditor of CSIS, reviewing the day-to-day operational activities of the Service and monitoring compliance with policy and the CSIS Act.

Each year, the Inspector General (IG) must submit to the Minister a certificate stating the “extent to which the Inspector General is satisfied” with the Director's Annual Report to the Minister on the operational activities of the Service. The certificate must inform the Minister of any failures by CSIS to comply with the Act or Ministerial Direction, and of any actions that involved an unreasonable or unnecessary exercise of powers. As per section 33(3) of the Act, the Minister forwards the certificate to SIRC for its consideration.

In reviewing the Inspector General's certificate, SIRC noted that the IG followed a methodology consistent with previous years. His review consisted of the inspection of documentation supporting the Director's report to the Minister, an analysis of significant Service operations, and interviews with senior CSIS management at HQ and in the field.

The IG based his conclusions on a validation process that included an inspection of CSIS internal documents and a review of the documentation supporting affidavits for warrant applications, supplemented by the IG's annual program of review activities. For this reporting period, the program included a review of warrant and target samples as well as of human source management, a special study of the Service's domestic liaison arrangements, and briefings on the Front End Screening Program for refugee claimants.

In this year's certificate, the Inspector General stated that in the almost 20 years since the establishment of CSIS, the Service had “evolved from being a rather disorganized organization with significant weaknesses, to a highly professional and effective arm of government.” He commended SIRC for contributing to this “maturing process.”

With respect to the Director's Annual Report for 2002–2003, the IG declared himself to be “satisfied.” He noted that during his review, various issues had been uncovered that required “further discussion,” but felt that these issues had been “appropriately dealt with by the Service.”

UNLAWFUL CONDUCT

Under section 20(2) of the CSIS Act, the Director of CSIS must submit a report to the Minister when, in the Director's opinion, a CSIS employee may have acted unlawfully in performing his or her duties and functions. The Minister, in turn, must send the report with his comments to the Attorney General of Canada and to SIRC.

In 2003–2004, the Service sent no reports of prohibited activity to the Minister. The Attorney General of Canada continues to consider an instance of unlawful conduct that the Committee originally reported in its 2000–2001 Annual Report.

SECTION 2(d) INVESTIGATIONS

The Service is authorized to collect, analyse and retain information and intelligence on activities that may be suspected of constituting a threat to the security of Canada. Section 2(d) of the CSIS Act defines a threat to include activities directed towards undermining or destroying the system of government in Canada. The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness must authorize CSIS investigations of these threats. The Service reported that in 2003–2004, the Minister did not approve any investigations under subsection 2(d).

DISCLOSURES OF INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC OR NATIONAL INTEREST

CSIS may disclose information it has obtained in the performance of its duties and functions only in accordance with the specific conditions set out in section 19 of the CSIS Act. Section 19(2)(d) of the Act authorizes the Minister to approve disclosures to individuals identified in the section where such a disclosure would be in the public interest and that interest outweighs the resulting invasion of privacy. The Service reported to SIRC that no such disclosures were approved in 2003–2004.

Disclosure of Information by CSIS

Section 19 of the CSIS Act sets out four situations in which the Service may disclose information obtained in the performance of its duties and functions. These situations are defined under section 19(2) as follows:

Section 19(2)(a) - information that may be used in the investigation or prosecution of an alleged contravention of any federal or provincial law may be disclosed to a law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the matter, the Solicitor General of Canada or the Attorney General of the province in question;
Section 19(2)(b) - information related to the conduct of Canada's external relations may be disclosed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Section 19(2)(c) - information related to the defence of Canada may be disclosed to the Minister of National Defence; and
Section 19(2)(d) - information that, in the opinion of the Minister, is essential to the public interest may be disclosed to any minister of the Crown or employee of the Public Service of Canada. The Director of CSIS must submit a report to SIRC with respect to disclosures related to the public interest.

There have been two disclosures under section 19(2)(d). In 1998—1999, all federal government departments and agencies were asked to facilitate the RCMP Public Complaints Commission (PCC) inquiry into police conduct at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vancouver. In 2000—2001, disclosure was made to counsel acting on behalf of a Minister of the Crown.

SECTION 38 STATISTICS

Section 38 (a)(vii) of the CSIS Act directs SIRC to compile and analyse statistics on the operational activities of the Service. In this regard, CSIS provides data to the Review Committee on source payments during the fiscal year as well as the total number of human sources. Given the highly sensitive nature of these statistics, we are not able to disclose them publicly.

In addition, we compile and analyse other statistics on operational activities arising from the individual studies we undertake each year. In our review this past year of the Front End Screening Program, for example, we compiled statistics on advice CSIS provided to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (a summary of our report appears in Section 1 of this Annual Report).