Intelligence Committee Laments Difficulty in Obtaining Documents From Feds

David McGuinty, chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, holds a new conference to release the committee's annual report, in Ottawa on March 12, 2020. The Canadian Press/Fred Chartrand

The group of select parliamentarians tasked with reviewing the intelligence in the hands of the federal government says its facing obstacles in getting access to the material it needs to do its work.

“The committee faces several challenges to obtaining the information we are entitled to under the law and that we need to fulfill our mandate,” said David McGuinty, Liberal MP and chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP).

McGuinty was testifying on April 18 before the House of Commons public safety committee to address NSICOP’s latest report on cyber defence.

He remarked that Parliament would be reviewing later this year the NSICOP Act and offered a recommendation to MPs on the committee who could be involved in the review.

“I will only emphasize the importance of the committee’s access to government information,” he said.

“For example, the committee is concerned that departments are applying an overly broad interpretation of what constitutes a cabinet confidence.”

NSICOP was created by the Trudeau government through the passage of the NSICOP Act in 2017.

It comprises eight MPs from all political parties and one senator who have security clearances, granting them the ability to review in secret documents produced and received by the Canadian intelligence apparatus.

NSICOP Executive Director Lisa-Marie Inman drilled down on the issue of her committee not being able to receive documents protected by cabinet confidence.

She told MPs it’s not really that NSICOP’s work has been “compromised or hindered” by not being able to see cabinet confidences, but rather that it doesn’t know what it’s missing since departments don’t have to notify NSICOP they’re holding documents back.

“So if there’s a document subject to cabinet confidence or information subject to cabinet confidence, the committee doesn’t necessarily know that that document exists because it doesn’t need to be provided,” she said.

Inman added that NSICOP has previously inadvertently obtained documents marked cabinet confidence, which led them to “discern that the application of the definition is sometimes very broad.”

NSICOP has received more attention of late in relation to the issue of Chinese regime interference in Canada documented in national security leaks in the press.

This led to opposition parties calling for holding a public inquiry on the matter, but the Liberal government has resisted and instead announced other measures on March 6.

One of those measures was to task NSICOP with reviewing the issue, something it had worked on previously, with its findings and recommendations published in its 2020 annual report.

It wrote at the time that espionage and foreign interference were the “most significant long-term threats to Canada’s sovereignty and prosperity,” and identified China and Russia as the main culprits.

McGuinty told MPs on the public safety committee he hopes the government will pay closer attention to recommendations made by NSCIOP, noting it hasn’t responded to 20 recommendations contained in six of its previous reviews.

He said NSICOP is putting aside its review of the lawful interception of communications for security and intelligence activities to study the foreign interference issue.