Bill C-59 (Historical)

National Security Act, 2017

An Act respecting national security matters

Part 1 enacts the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency Act, which establishes the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency and sets out its composition, mandate and powers. It repeals the provisions of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act establishing the Security Intelligence Review Committee and amends that Act and other Acts in order to transfer certain powers, duties and functions to the new Agency. It also makes related and consequential amendments to other Acts.
Part 1.‍1 enacts the Avoiding Complicity in Mistreatment by Foreign Entities Act to authorize the issuance of directions respecting the disclosure of and request for information that would result in a substantial risk of mistreatment of an individual by a foreign entity and the use of information that is likely to have been obtained as the result of mistreatment of an individual by a foreign entity.
Part 2 enacts the Intelligence Commissioner Act, which provides that the duties and functions of the Intelligence Commissioner are to review the conclusions on the basis of which certain authorizations are issued or amended, and determinations are made, under the Communications Security Establishment Act and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and to approve those authorizations, amendments and determinations if those conclusions are reasonable. This Part also abolishes the position of the Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment, provides for that Commissioner to become the Intelligence Commissioner, transfers the employees of the former Commissioner to the office of the new Commissioner and makes related and consequential amendments to other Acts.
Part 3 enacts the Communications Security Establishment Act, which establishes the Communications Security Establishment and, among other things, sets out the Establishment’s mandate as well as the regime for authorizing its activities. It also amends the National Defence Act and makes consequential amendments to other Acts.
Part 4 amends the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act to
(a) add a preamble to that Act and provide a mechanism to enhance the accountability of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service;
(b) add new limits on the exercise of the Service’s power to reduce threats to the security of Canada including, in particular, by setting out a list of measures that may be authorized by the Federal Court;
(c) provide a justification, subject to certain limitations, for the commission of acts or omissions that would otherwise constitute offences;
(d) exempt employees of the Service and persons acting under their direction from liability for offences related to acts committed for the sole purpose of establishing or maintaining a covert identity;
(e) create a regime for the Service to collect, retain, query and exploit datasets in the course of performing its duties and functions;
(f) make amendments to the warrant regime that are related to datasets; and
(g) implement measures for the management of datasets.
Part 5 amends the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act to, among other things,
(a) emphasize that the Act addresses only the disclosure of information and not its collection or use;
(b) clarify the definition of “activity that undermines the security of Canada”;
(c) clarify that advocacy, protest, dissent and artistic expression are not activities that undermine the security of Canada unless they are carried on in conjunction with an activity that undermines the security of Canada;
(d) provide that a disclosure of information is authorized only if the disclosure will contribute to the carrying out by the recipient institution of its national security responsibilities and will not affect any person’s privacy interest more than reasonably necessary;
(e) require that information disclosed be accompanied by information about the accuracy of the disclosed information and the reliability of the manner in which it was obtained; and
(f) require that records be prepared and kept in respect of every disclosure of information and that every year a copy of every record prepared in the preceding year be provided to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency.
Part 6 amends the Secure Air Travel Act to authorize the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to collect from air carriers and operators of aviation reservation systems, for the purpose of identifying listed persons, information about any individuals who are on board or expected to be on board an aircraft for any flight prescribed by regulation, and to exempt an air carrier from providing that information, or from the application of any provision of the regulations, in certain circumstances. It amends the Act to authorize that Minister to collect personal information from individuals for the purpose of issuing a unique identifier to them to assist with pre-flight verification of their identity. It also reverses the rule in relation to a deemed decision on an application for administrative recourse. Finally, it amends the Act to provide for certain other measures related to the collection, disclosure and destruction of information.
Part 7 amends the Criminal Code to, among other things,
(a) make certain procedural modifications to the terrorist listing regime under section 83.‍05, such as providing for a staggered ministerial review of listed entities and granting the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness the authority to amend the names, including aliases, of listed entities;
(b) change the offence of advocating or promoting terrorism offences in general, in section 83.‍21, to one of counselling the commission of a terrorism offence, and make corresponding changes to the definition of terrorist propaganda;
(c) raise one of the thresholds for imposing a recognizance with conditions under section 83.‍3, and amend when that section is to be reviewed and, unless extended by Parliament, to cease to have effect;
(d) repeal sections 83.‍28 and 83.‍29 relating to an investigative hearing into a terrorism offence and repeal subsections 83.‍31(1) and (1.‍1), which require annual reports on such hearings;
(e) require the Attorney General of Canada to publish a report each year setting out the number of terrorism recognizances entered into under section 810.‍011 in the previous year; and
(f) authorize a court, in proceedings for recognizances under any of sections 83 and 810 to 810.‍2, to make orders for the protection of witnesses.
Part 8 amends the Youth Criminal Justice Act to, among other things, ensure that the protections that are afforded to young persons apply in respect of proceedings in relation to recognizance orders, including those related to terrorism, and give employees of a department or agency of the Government of Canada access to youth records, for the purpose of administering the Canadian Passport Order.
Part 9 requires that a comprehensive review of the provisions and operation of this enactment take place during the fourth year after section 168 of this enactment comes into force. If that section 168 and section 34 of Bill C-22, introduced in the 1st session of the 42nd Parliament and entitled the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act, come into force within one year of each other, the reviews required by those sections are to take place at the same time and are to be undertaken by the same committee or committees.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

That's interesting.

Terrorism certainly is part of Bill C-59. Part of your responsibility as Minister of Defence, as well as the primary focus behind Bill C-59, is to protect Canadians.

You were at the event in India with Mr. Atwal. Did that not raise any alarm bells for you on national security issues?

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Again, I'm going to ask the same question because, respectfully, Mr. Chair, this is related to Bill C-59.

It's related to your role as Minister of Defence and your role within Bill C-59. It has to do with Foreign Affairs. Given the fact that we have seen the national security adviser brief the press before he briefs you—and I take it by your non-answer that you were not consulted before he briefed the press—I'm wondering whether there should be some amendments to this legislation—because it doesn't provide us any direction on who the national security adviser should talk to or who he should consult before he does brief the press—to ensure that doesn't happen in the future.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

It's getting more difficult to figure out what the different parts of the question are. If you could rephrase that Bill C-59 piece, I'd be happy to try to answer it for you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Minister, given my previous discussions with all members that we are here to discuss Bill C-59 and notwithstanding the cleverness with which Mr. Motz has phrased his question, I would encourage you, Minister, to answer the first part of the question, but as to any travels—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Bill C-59 requires you, as the Minister of Defence, to have interactions and contact with Foreign Affairs on CSIS matters and CSE matters. Given the fact that the national security adviser was asked by the PMO to brief the press, I'm wondering whether you were consulted on that. If you were not, should we write into this bill that the national security adviser should not brief the press until he has first consulted you?

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

So you're not going to answer the question. Let me ask it a different way.

Bill C-59 requires you, as the Minister of Defence, to consult with Foreign Affairs on anything related to CSIS or CSE.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister and your team, for being here today.

Minister, given your role within C-59 and as Minister of Defence, did you hold any meetings with your counterparts about national security or Bill C-59 on your tour of India?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Budget 2018, in fact, allocated $115 million for a Canadian centre for cybersecurity. How does that tie into what we're looking at right here when we're talking about Bill C-59 and CSE?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you.

I was reading a report by The Citizen Lab that made a number of suggestions about CSE and Bill C-59. I've referred to it a few times along the way. One of them was to allow federal institutions to opt out of cybersecurity advice and monitoring if they want to.

If there were such an opt-out, what would be the impact on your ability to provide cyber-defence?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you, Minister, for coming to speak with us today about Bill C-59. Cybersecurity is an issue top of mind for a lot of people, so it's a really important time to be talking about what we will be doing with CSE and how that will enhance cybersecurity.

There are parts in here about how CSE operates with critical infrastructure. It's not federal infrastructure. Can you explain how CSE will be able to use the new framework we have in Bill C-59 to provide assistance to non-federal infrastructure?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

I thought Mr. Paul-Hus was very clever in the way he introduced Bill C-59 into this question, but I do call relevance of his question as to the working relationship between the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, welcome to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

Bill C-59 states that you must work with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We already know that, as Minister of National Defence, you have a close relationship with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Probably weekly, you have to discuss a number of issues and the deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces around the world. I am wondering why the bill has to require you to contact the minister, since this co-operation is already part of your day-to-day work, I think.

There is a problem that you will surely be able to help me understand, given your close co-operation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It's about a security breach. I do not know how that expression will be translated, but as a former member of the military, you must know what I'm talking about. The incident took place in India, namely the invitation sent to Jaspal Atwal. We are hearing two contradictory stories. According to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atwal was invited by rogue elements in the Indian government. On your side, your colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the invitation came from Canadian government officials. So we have two versions, that of the Prime Minister, to whom you are accountable, and that of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with whom you work every day.

Which version do you believe?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

One aspect in particular that is extremely important, since the Minister of National Defence is also responsible for our Canadian Armed Forces, is that CSE will now actually have the ability to provide the right support to the Canadian Armed Forces. They obviously provided the right intelligence, but now with Bill C-59 they can provide the right expertise. They'll be able to leverage their knowledge base and their technology and keep up to date with some of the terrorist networks and what they're trying to do, especially when it comes to keeping our soldiers safe. That includes everything, as I mentioned, from somebody detonating an IED to disrupting the network to keep it from getting to that point.

We also have to be mindful that even with the best technologies, we had to wait for a cyber-attack on us to occur before we could actually do anything about it. We need to make sure that we are proactive in having a defensive mechanism so that when we see a threat we are able to shut it down beforehand. These are the things that are very important here to making sure that we protect our infrastructure in a very proactive manner.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

With Bill C-59, one of the things we started to address when we consulted with Canadians is making sure that we stay at the cutting edge of our technology. However, if we're at the cutting edge of technology, we need to make sure we have the right legislation to be able to adjust to the methods that are being used out there. Bill C-59 will finally allow CSE to be able to protect Canadians from foreign threats.

This is something that's very unique to this bill, because it has never been done before. What it also does is create a separate CSE act that gives exact direction on what CSE is able to do while at the same time putting a very robust mechanism in place to protect the privacy of Canadians.

From a policing perspective, I think Canadians are also looking for protection from identity theft with regard to how they do their banking. CSE has the ability and knowledge base to be able to assist Canadians with the right advice. It has already started to do that through its social media campaigns.

This is what this legislation is about; it's about protecting Canadians and Canadian interests.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Thank you.

I will ask my questions in French for those who need the earpiece.

Minister, it is a pleasure to see you and your entire team again. Welcome to the committee.

I have just come from a two-hour meeting of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, where representatives from Estonia talked about e-governance.

Clearly, beyond what is done on land, on sea and in the air, information is becoming the new battlefield. Big data is becoming a new target and a new playing field for conflicts between countries.

How will those new powers granted by Bill C-59 serve the CSE?