Reviews

One of the most important responsibilities of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC or the Committee) is to conduct in-depth reviews of past operations of the Service. This helps Parliament to determine whether the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS or the Service) is in compliance with the law.

It is important to understand that SIRC is a review agency, so it does not provide oversight of current CSIS activities. However, by preparing "snapshots" of CSIS operations over almost two decades, the Committee has developed a comprehensive understanding of the Service's activities. By conducting reviews, SIRC helps to ensure the democratic accountability of one of the Government's most powerful organizations, thereby safeguarding Canadians' fundamental rights and freedoms.

The CSIS Act gives SIRC the right to have “access to any information under the control of the Service or of the Inspector General.” As a result, the Committee has the absolute authority to examine all of the Service's activities, no matter how sensitive and no matter how classified that information may be. The sole exception is Cabinet confidences, which means deliberations among Ministers.

How Reviews Are Conducted

The review process begins with the development of a research plan which is approved by the Committee before the beginning of each fiscal year. However, the plan is not static and can be adjusted to respond to unexpected events.

Because of the small size of SIRC in relation to CSIS, the Committee operates on the basis of risk management. Since it is not capable of examining all of the Service's activities in any given period, it must carefully choose which issues to examine. A number of factors influence this selection, including shifts in the nature of the threat environment; changes in technology; the need to follow up on past Committee reviews; etc.

Once the Committee has approved the broad research plan, staff resources are allocated for each review - usually staff work in teams. Because much of this material is so sensitive that it must be reviewed on-site, the Service makes available a separate office and computers at CSIS Headquarters in Ottawa for the exclusive use of SIRC staff.

A typical review requires hundreds of staff hours and is completed over a period of 4-5 months. Thousands of pages of hardcopy and electronic documentation must be obtained from CSIS files, reviewed and analysed. Briefings from and interviews of relevant CSIS staff normally form part of any SIRC review, as do field visits whenever a review involves a regional office or a Security Liaison Officer post abroad.

In almost all cases, the interviews and the examination of documents generate follow-up questions to the Service, to which detailed answers are expected. A report on the results of the review, always a classified document, is presented to the Committee at one of its monthly meetings. Sometimes Members will request that follow-up inquiries be made. Once finalized, the review document is provided to the Director of the Service and the Inspector General, CSIS.

Types of Reviews

SIRC's authority to review the performance by CSIS of its duties and functions is described in Section 38(a) of the CSIS Act. The Committee is required by statute:

1. to review the reports from the Director of CSIS to the Minister, and to review the Certificates of the Inspector General;
2. to review the directions issued to CSIS by the Minister;
3. to review the arrangements entered into by CSIS with federal, provincial and foreign agencies and police services; SIRC is also to monitor the information and intelligence that CSIS provides, pursuant to those arrangements;
4. to review any report or comment made under the CSIS Act to the Attorney General by the Minister;
5. to monitor any request made to CSIS by the Minister of National Defence or the Minister of Foreign Affairs;
6. to review all CSIS internal regulations and policies;
7. to compile and analyse statistics on the operational activities of CSIS; and
8. to arrange for reviews of specific CSIS activities to be conducted by CSIS or by the Inspector General, or to conduct such reviews itself.

The statutory requirements described above are not the only reviews undertaken by SIRC. The Committee's staff occasionally prepare reports under Section 54 of the CSIS Act involving special cases that come to the attention of the Committee. Examples include the attack on the Iranian Embassy, the Air India tragedy and the Heritage Front Affair. These reports are submitted to the Minister.

Each year, the Committee also conducts a series of reviews in a CSIS region. These cover warrants, surveillance, targeting authorizations, community interviews and other matters. Regional reviews give SIRC an opportunity to examine how Ministerial Direction and CSIS policy actually affect the day-to-day work of investigators in the field.

SIRC's reviews can include findings or recommendations. Although these are not binding, the Committee's role is to advise and warn, so that the Service and those bodies of government that direct it, may take steps to modify policies and procedures as needed. A summary of each review, with all classified information removed, is included in the Committee's Annual Report to Parliament.