Reflections - A History of SIRC

Looking back

THE NEW MILLENNIUM AND POST-9/11 ERA

In the new millennium, and especially since the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, there has been a fundamental shift in the priorities of security intelligence services around the world. The war on terror has moved CSIS to the forefront of public attention, as SIRC remarked in its 2001–2002 annual report: "Canada's security and intelligence apparatus—CSIS in particular—has become the object of public and media scrutiny of a kind not seen in decades."

Canadians saw a sea change in public policy, immediately following the September 11^th attacks. The Government of Canada quickly adopted additional security measures, drafted new laws to combat terrorism, and within three months put in place a comprehensive new Anti-Terrorism Act. But these new powers make it all the more important to safeguard citizens' rights and freedoms, to preserve Canada as an open and democratic society.

Today, at the 20^th anniversary of the CSIS Act, Canada has much to be proud of in terms of the model it developed for making security intelligence more cooperative and accountable. This point was underscored by then-CSIS Director Ward Elcock, in a speech to the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies in 2003:

"Twenty years of constant review activity have resulted in many recommendations on how we could have run things differently, and many of these recommendations have mirrored adjustments that have been made to the Service's management procedures. SIRC's comments have extended into the heart of how the organization is run, including matters of source-handling, investigative methods, targeting decisions and other core functions. Do we always share SIRC's views? No in some cases, yes in some...The point is that the review process remains an ongoing debate on ways to ensure that the principles of the legislation are sustained as we evolve and adapt to new threats. That is what the legislators intended."¹⁸