Report on reviewing the Communications Security Establishment tabled in Parliament

OTTAWA, Jan. 29, 2020 Today, the final annual report issued by the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner, the Honourable Jean-Pierre Plouffe, was tabled in Parliament.

Since 1996, the Commissioner has provided independent external review of the operational activities of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to determine whether the organization complied with the law and protected the privacy of Canadians. Commissioner Plouffe, a retired judge, has had all the powers of a Commissioner under Part II of the Inquiries Act.

Last summer, the National Security Act, 2017 came into force and changed Canada's security landscape. Under this new legislation, the Office of the CSE Commissioner closed permanently and Commissioner Plouffe was appointed to head the new Office of the Intelligence Commissioner, bringing with him the staff from his former office. His mandate of reviewing CSE activities was transferred to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA).

Report highlights
All of the CSE activities reviewed in 2018?2019 complied with the law. In the eight reviews conducted during the year, the Commissioner made five recommendations to promote compliance with the law and strengthen privacy protection:

• one recommendation, that CSE assess the accuracy and completeness of the documentation it provides to the Commissioner's office as part of the review process, is related to issues that came up in more than one review;
• two recommendations relate specifically to work that CSE does to assist the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), regarding changes to CSIS warrants and CSE's understanding of them;
• one recommendation aims to strengthen CSE's records management process regarding the disclosure of Canadian identity information; and
• another recommendation repeats a recommendation from the Commissioner's 2015?2016 annual report, that CSE reconcile discrepancies between its practices and the administrative requirements of the ministerial directive for a specific method of foreign signals intelligence collection.

The office completed two other reviews in the 2019?2020 fiscal year prior to the National Security Act, 2017 coming into force. The results of those two reviews will be reported on by NSIRA.

"I am honoured to have held this important position," Commissioner Plouffe stated, adding, "The office can be pleased with the part it has played since it came into existence in 1996, in contributing to CSE's overall accountability to Parliament and the public."

The annual report is available at www.ocsec-bccst.gc.ca/ann-rpt/index_e.php, as well as www.nsira-ossnr.gc.ca/index-eng.html.

Associated Links

• Office of the CSE Commissioner's website: www.ocsec-bccst.gc.ca (archived)
• CSE's website for information on its mandate and activities: www.cse-cst.gc.ca
• National Security and Intelligence Review Agency's website: http://www.nsira-ossnr.gc.ca/index-eng.html

SOURCE Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner