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]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you again for being here.

I want to take off just a little bit from what my colleague Ms. Damoff was talking about. You mentioned in your previous testimony, Mr. Nesbitt, I believe it was, that the culture of security agencies to protect information is a barrier to centralizing information and that ensuring that the right information gets to the right people in a timely manner is problematic.

Would you say that Bill C-59 is well placed to deal with this issue; that is, this mandatory reporting agency that compels information rather than sitting back and waiting? Are we dealing with this right with respect to Bill C-59 being the mechanism and the way it's going to play out?

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

Would you suggest, then, that there might be an opportunity to strengthen Bill C-59 by adding some provisions that have to do with this specifically?

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

To follow up, in 2015, in an article you authored for the National Post, you wrote that “Canada cannot claim to have taken the threat of ISIL funding seriously in the way the U.S. has. Canada’s sanctions, legislation and enforcement are outdated, under-funded and limited in scope.”

Does Bill C-59 address this issue of terrorist group funding in a meaningful way?

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

Thank you.

Professor Nesbitt, in your testimony on the national security review, you suggested that there needed to be better coordination of agencies and organizations.

Is this achieved here in Bill C-59? Do you see the new NSIRA as an ideal group to conduct this centralized information collection and analysis and then to put it together in a bigger picture?

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

Yes. It's in a different form in Bill C-59 than it was in C-51, if I am correct.

[Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer, National Office, B'nai Brith Canada]

Thank you. I will be sharing my time with Mr. Matas.

We thank the committee for inviting us to appear. I will provide some introductory remarks. My colleague David Matas, our senior legal counsel, will elaborate on some of our key points on the proposed legislation.

B'nai Brith Canada is this country's oldest national Jewish organization, founded in 1875, with a long history of defending the human rights of Canadian Jewry and others across the country. We advocate for the interests of the grassroots Jewish community in Canada and for their rights such as freedom of conscience and religion.

B'nai Brith Canada testified before this committee in 2015 and, most recently, in February 2017, on what was then Bill C-51. Our testimony today will develop the same points we had previously expressed, and we will focus on specific areas that touch on our work, particularly part 7.

Our latest audit of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada contains a key truth: Jews are consistently targeted by hate and bias-related crimes in Canada at a rate higher than that of any other identifiable group. Statistics Canada recently released its report on 2016 police-reported hate crimes, and once again Jews were targeted more than any other group in the country. But police-reported hate crimes are only the tip of the iceberg. We require better tools—data and analysis—to gain greater insights into all hate crimes and to do a better job of countering them.

Bill C-59 includes proposals to change the Criminal Code aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the terrorist entity listing regime. We endorse those proposals providing for a staggered ministerial review of listed entities and granting the minister the authority to amend the names, including aliases, of listed entities.

In the past, B'nai Brith has been supportive of measures to empower security officials to criminalize advocacy and promotion of terrorism, and seize terrorist propaganda. We supported these measures to deny those intent on inspiring, radicalizing, or recruiting Canadians to commit acts of terror and who exploit the legal leeway to be clever but dangerous with their words. Bill C-59 seeks to change the law's articulation of this offence from “advocates or promotes” to “counselling” the commission of a terrorism offence. This is a weakening of the law that we believe is unhelpful. We have noted the assurances provided by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, but we are still uncertain that such a change, which in our view weakens the law, is needed.

The change of advocacy and promotion to “counselling” also impacts on the definition of “terrorism propaganda”. Bill C-59 would remove the advocacy and promotion of terrorism offences in general from the definition. This is also a weakening of the law.

We accept that the right to freedom of expression is an important consideration, but the right of potential victims to be free from terrorism and the threat of terrorism must be a greater priority.

The importance of a clear articulation of the penalties for advocacy and promotion of terrorism should include the glorification of terrorism, something that should be of concern to all of us.

These are specific points I wanted to raise. There are others that, while not specifically part of the proposed amendments to Bill C-59, are intimately associated and are of interest and concern to B'nai Brith Canada. There are further points here. I'd like to highlight some.

The continuing manifestation of anti-Semitism, hate crimes, and hate speech in Canada affects not only the Jewish community. B'nai Brith Canada sees these worrying trends as national security issues. Organizations such as ours working with law enforcement agencies at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels must address these issues collaboratively.

The government's framework to counter youth radicalization is also extremely important. We endorse the work of the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence. We look forward to a stronger dialogue with them.

How can we collaborate in the more effective monitoring of groups engaged in hate speech or incitement directed at children, including those using coded messages that are nonetheless threatening, even where these might fall short of actual crimes? This is very much the focus in countering radicalization at an early stage, where civil society can have better dialogue with law enforcement.

How can we ensure that government agencies shun questionable organizations and groups, particularly those that receive government grants and nonetheless are operating in ways inimical to the fundamental rights and freedoms of Canadian society? We would welcome a channel of dialogue for this purpose.

Lastly, how can we better engage in dialogue with the Canada Revenue Agency to ensure diligent follow-up to complaints regarding organizations engaged in or supporting those expressing hate speech at odds with their charitable status?

There are other points, as I mentioned, in our paper. I'm sure we can answer those in questions.

I'd like to cede the floor to my colleague David Matas.

[Prof. Michael Nesbitt]

Thank you so much.

Let me start by thanking you all for this wonderful opportunity and for undertaking the crucial task of reviewing Bill C-59. It is truly indeed an honour and a privilege to be here today and to sit with you.

I have been asked to focus my attention today on part 3 of Bill C-59, the proposed CSE act, and that is what I intend to do. In general, there is no question to me that updating the antiquated authorities governing the CSE and putting the establishment on solid statutory footing is vitally important. As a result, I am strongly in favour of the initiative to craft a CSE act. Indeed, it is obvious to me that the result of this endeavour is a carefully crafted piece of legislation that tries hard to balance the operational needs of CSE to protect Canada's national security interests with Canada's commitment to democracy and the rule of law.

Obviously, given its size and complexity, there will also be much work to do. That simply goes with the territory. In this regard, I have had the distinct benefit of reading the briefs and testimonies of the witnesses that have already presented to this committee. While each guest has offered thoughtful commentary that I encourage you to strongly consider, my overarching sense is that none of us will foresee all the legal or operational challenges to come.

This is the reality of dealing with such a large, important, complex, and highly technical bill. Therefore, more than anything else, it will be vitally important that the current review of the CSE act is thorough and rigorous and that such rigorous review and oversight continues, particularly in the early days and years. This is not an act that should look precisely as it does now, by this summer, or when it is first reviewed, years after coming into force. It will have to be updated to keep pace with technological, operational, and legal developments.

In my mind, the best bet is to focus on robust review and oversight, such that, the issues that do arise in the coming days and years come to the attention of Parliament, to the public, and to the CSE itself, and that there is an opportunity to make the necessary corrections when the time comes.

Neither the law nor Canada's security is well served, if the CSE's legal and/or operational fault lines are kept in the shadows, and it is my sense that the CSE would agree with that sentiment. For this reason, I would start by encouraging you to adopt Professor Kent Roach's recommendation that the review contemplated in part 9 of the act take place sooner, rather than later.

The same goes for the CSE Commissioner's recommendation with regard to the need for the proposed intelligence commissioner to produce an annual report on his or her authorizations, to be tabled in both Houses yearly. Also, there is the need to ensure that any activities that implicate a reasonable expectation of privacy, and thus implicate section 8 of the charter, by necessity, are properly overseen by the intelligence commissioner.

Here, I have three things in mind. First, the CSE Commissioner has recommended that proposed section 37(3) of the CSE act be amended to require the IC approval of ministerial authorizations to extend foreign intelligence operations. Indeed, if the original operation requires IC approval, so too should any follow-up. Arguably, the IC will have more information on which to base a decision at this re-authorization stage. More to the point, it is at this later stage that we will really see whether, and how much, incidental collection of Canadian content is forming a part of the foreign intelligence collection.

This brings me to my second point fairly neatly. I encourage you to focus your legal review of the proposed CSE act on those sections that implicate the collection of incidental information not, as we commonly say, directed at Canadians. In the past, including recently in both the U.S. and Canada, we have seen that lack of oversight over just this sort of incidentally collected information can cause great legal and political controversy that I don't believe anyone is looking for.

In the context of the proposed CSE act, I would then encourage you to adopt Professor Craig Forcese's call to amend subsections 23(3) dealing with the collection of foreign intelligence, and 23(4) dealing with cybersecurity. CSE is made to seek ministerial authorization, and thus IC oversight, where its activities will contravene an act of Parliament, as it currently states, or involve the acquisition of information in which a Canadian or person in Canada has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Our charter demands oversight where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. Therefore, it is very hard to see how, without ministerial authorization and IC oversight, the bulk collection of information that implicates the reasonable expectation of privacy, which under the current wording could be permitted, would hold up in any court of law in Canada.

Third and finally, I believe that you have heard testimony that has expressed concern about the collection of publicly available data, without the oversight of the IC. I'd be happy to provide more detail here during the question period. For now, I will simply say that one can certainly be sympathetic to the carve-out for publicly available data. If the public can access it, surely there is no need for the CSE to get approval to do the same, or so the theory might go.

But not all publicly available information is the same, and bulk publicly accessible information in the hands of the state is a very different thing indeed from that information in the hands of an individual like you or me. For example, unlawfully obtained information, hacked passwords for example, can become public but nevertheless will also be thought of as private information—at least in the eyes of those who hold those passwords. Moreover, discrete pieces of public information may seem harmless on their own, but when harnessed together by the state to produce big data analytics that can also be publicly purchased and then collected as one piece of information, the amalgam of public information can offer very private insights into the lives of individuals. Of course, all of this adds to the thinking, which is already present with respect to some publicly available information, that in the right context public information can itself implicate a reasonable expectation of privacy and thus implicate section 7 of the charter once again.

Put another way, just because it was accessed publicly, does not mean it doesn't implicate the privacy protections of our charter. This will, of course, have ripple effects for how that information can be used and shared. With IC oversight, for example, such private “public” information might be shared with the RCMP for prosecutorial purposes. Without IC oversight, information collected in violation of the charter will not likely be able to be used in support of such prosecutions.

In short, unless CSE's collection of public information is brought under the purview of the IC, there is real reason to fear that we have both a security and a liberty concern here.

Thank you very much for your time.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

The work that both of your organizations are doing, making sure that our private lives are well protected and our rights are well protected, is needed. We salute that.

I had the privilege of leading more than a dozen consultations on Bill C-59 in the first year I was here. People were very loud, on both sides of the fence. There were those who wanted to have a bit of protection, and those who accepted the fact that we need to maybe compromise—if the word works—part of our privacy in order to make sure we are safe.

I'm sure you did a lot of research here and there to make sure you got the most precise and value-added comments supporting both sides of the fence. What is the nature of the comments you received from those who accept reducing their privacy in order to be more secure?

[Laura Tribe]

I think one of our concerns is that it's unclear what publicly available means. We would love to have that addressed through the amendments to Bill C-59, so that it is really clear on exactly what these things do or don't mean so they aren't left to law enforcement to interpret themselves. With publicly available information, unless it explicitly says that people are not allowed to purchase commercially available information, to purchase huge datasets, then, as far as we're concerned, that's still a possibility and a real concern for us.

We would put forward the idea that the ability to Google everything and start recording all of those datasets is problematic. Collecting that mass amount of information, in general, is of concern. Additionally, proactively purchasing and growing those datasets without any direct targets, without any clear suspicion or motivation is really concerning as citizens who are trying to live our lives, who are feeling like we are victims or targets or suspicious actors in our own state. The ability to engage as a citizen is really hard to do without putting a lot of information on the Internet right now. Feeling like anything you put out there is now also being proactively collected and stored by your own government is quite terrifying.

[Laura Tribe]

I'm not certain what the powers are that CSE would use. I know that based on experts' reading of Bill C-59 and the proposed CSE act, those are the capabilities that are possible within the powers that are being given to CSE. I think that's the concern, that we might not be in a position right now where those are being used, but if we continue to grant those powers, we could be in a place where they are used. That's our concern.

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

I'm having trouble understanding your reasoning. Fundamentally, Canada does not want to take an aggressive position against any international community, but we have to protect ourselves. According to what you've written and what you've provided to the committee, we are giving CSE too much power, but we have to be prepared to defend our institutions and systems.

You see the rise of certain practices in Canada as a potential gateway to intervention abroad. That's what I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. I appreciate that you don't want a cyber-arms race, but we have no choice. We want to protect ourselves, and we need the tools to do so.

Your group, OpenMedia, posted a video on YouTube. According to the video, Bill C-59 will give Canada's electronic spying agency near-limitless powers in the international realm, in terms of what you were saying, and make it possible to spread false information online for the purpose of influencing foreign elections, as the Russians are said to have done in the 2016 U.S. election.

Is it your position that CSE will proactively influence the democracies or elections of other countries?

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming forward today. It's nice to see you again at the committee.

We've had a fair bit of testimony, and I've asked witnesses about the way CSE is using information gathered from the global information infrastructure, and the fact that right now, while they don't spy on Canadians, Canadians' information can get wrapped up in it, whether they're abroad or whether they've been transmitting through this global information infrastructure. Would you recommend that we amend Bill C-59 to clarify that a ministerial authorization should be required when CSE acquires information from or through this global information infrastructure, when a Canadian is implicated in it?

[Timothy McSorley, National Coordinator, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group]

Thank you. I'm very glad to be able to present today on behalf of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and our 45 member organizations. I'd like to thank OpenMedia for inviting us to join them today.

I'd like to touch on three main points: first, review and oversight; second, some of the changes to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act; and third, the no-fly list.

Regarding oversight and review, the ICLMG greatly welcomes the creation of the national security and intelligence review agency, as well as the intelligence commissioner. However, we believe there are important ways in which both bodies could be strengthened. We hope the committee and government take this opportunity to ensure that both the NSIRA and the intelligence commissioner have the powers and resources they need to carry out their important work. Others have given feedback, which we largely support, regarding the intelligence commissioner, so I will focus on the NSIRA.

The ICLMG has long supported an overarching review mechanism as a way to ensure Canadians' rights are not violated, and to monitor the effectiveness of Canada's national security activities. Bill C-59 does away with the silos that have restricted the various review agencies' work, which alone is a major improvement.

I would highlight three issues, though, that we think the committee should examine regarding strengthening the NSIRA. First, to ensure independence we suggest that the NSIRA members be appointed via vote in Parliament and not through Governor in Council. Second, the complaints mechanism in the NSIRA act should apply not just to the RCMP, CSIS, the CSE, and security clearances, but be expanded to include, at a minimum, the national security activities of the CBSA as well as Global Affairs Canada, although ideally the complaints mechanism would actually include all federal national security related activities.

Third, SIRC has faced important criticism over the lack of transparency in its complaints system. There is, in fact, an ongoing lawsuit over this issue. We have also raised concerns about SIRC's inability to make binding recommendations. The NSIRA act would transpose these problems onto the new agency. We urge the committee to take this opportunity to improve on the SIRC model and ensure we have a strong, effective, overarching review body.

Next, regarding changes to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, CSIS's threat-reduction powers were introduced with Bill C-51 and were heavily criticized at the time. Bill C-59 attempts to solve some of these issues by restricting the powers to a set list of activities. However, we must reiterate in the strongest possible terms our opposition to granting an intelligence agency, which operates in secret, powers akin to those of law enforcement.

My time does not allow me to go into all our specific concerns, but at the heart of this is that CSIS's creation was meant to separate intelligence activities from law enforcement, and today we continue to have the same concerns we had at that time. Even in cases that require a warrant, we believe that a non-adversarial system will not ensure the protection of a target's civil liberties. We do not believe that this is an issue of “if” the system will violate an individual's rights, but “when”.

We are also concerned about new powers granting CSIS agents immunity for acts or omissions that would otherwise constitute an offence. The Canadian Bar Association, among others, raised serious concerns when these powers were granted to law enforcement officers, calling it antithetical to the rule of law. We believe this even more so when such powers are granted to intelligence agents operating in secret, and we think this section should be removed from Bill C-59.

Finally, regarding the Secure Air Travel Act and the no-fly list, we support the tremendous efforts by the No Fly List Kids and other groups to bring about a redress system. However, we believe the government must go further and address the more fundamental problems with the no-fly list regime. Bill C-59 does not address the due process issues that have been raised since 2007. We cannot condone a system that is used to restrict individuals' travel and to place them on what amounts to a terrorist watch list but does not allow them full access to the information against them, in order to mount a full and adequate defence. We have also yet to be shown that it improves upon Criminal Code provisions already in place that can be used to restrict the activities of an individual suspected of planning a crime. While we appreciate potential solutions put forward by others, such as introducing a special advocate system into the appeals process, we do not believe it is sufficient to restore due process. We maintain our fundamental opposition and call for the repeal of the no-fly list regime.

For more on our positions, we sent a brief to the committee, which I believe was circulated yesterday. I'd also be happy to take any questions, or follow up with any members, following the meeting.

Thank you.

[Laura Tribe, Executive Director, OpenMedia]

Good morning. My name is Laura Tribe, and I am the executive director of OpenMedia, a community-based organization committed to keeping the Internet open, affordable, and surveillance-free.

I'm here today with Tim McSorley of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, who were unfortunately not invited by the committee to testify in these proceedings, but whose contributions OpenMedia believes to be critical for an informed discussion of Bill C-59.

OpenMedia's work on privacy and digital security dates back to Bills C-13 and C-30, but has focused more recently on the serious security violations introduced by the previous government's Bill C-51. The OpenMedia community's lengthy efforts on these issues include producing “Canada's Privacy Plan”, a positive vision for the future of privacy in Canada that was crowdsourced from over 125,000 contributors; over 300,000 people speaking up against Bill C-51; two national days of action against Bill C-51, organized in partnership with organizations across the country; over 15,000 citizen comments submitted to the government's national security consultation; and over 6,000 submissions to this committee's written consultation on Bill C-59.

Public Safety Canada's report summarizing the national security consultation results showed that Canadians are overwhelmingly in favour of increased protections for personal privacy. More than four in five responses indicated that their expectation of privacy in the digital world is the same as or higher than in the physical world.

As a result, when Bill C-59 was introduced, we were relieved; it was a sign that change was coming. However, the more we analyzed the bill, the more our worries returned. The changes are less substantive than we had hoped, and invasive new powers were even introduced.

Bill C-59 fails to adequately address the information disclosure provisions and terrorist speech offences brought in by Bill C-51, but also brings in new data collection, cybersecurity, and information-sharing powers that further threaten our privacy and security.

Today this committee has a chance to make this right. Over 6,000 Canadians submitted their concerns about Bill C-59 via OpenMedia's written submission to this consultation. Since then, in the past two weeks, we've had almost 10,000 more Canadians sign a new petition concerning the expanded cyber-operations powers proposed in the CSE act included within Bill C-59. It's addressed to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security and reads:

“As a concerned Canadian, I am urging you to address the dangerous new powers being proposed for CSE in Bill C-59. Throughout the process of reforming Bill C-51, Canadians have been very clear on the need to scale back the drastic and invasive national security measures in the bill.

“Public Safety Canada's own 'What We Learned' report, which formed the basis of Bill C-59, confirmed that a majority of stakeholders and experts called for existing measures to be scaled back or repealed completely, and that most participants in the consultations 'opted to err on the side of protecting individual rights and freedoms rather than granting additional powers to national security agencies and law enforcement...'.

“The new active and defensive cyber-operations powers proposed in Bill C-59 for CSE are directly opposed to the wishes of the majority of Canadians. We asked for privacy, but instead we got an out-of-control spy agency with even more extreme powers than before.

“Security and privacy experts throughout Canada have expressed in great detail the issues with the proposed bill and the changes that need to be made to protect the privacy and security of Canadians. Experts have warned of the consequences of granting powers like these, powers that will be all the more dangerous given the lack of adequate oversight included in the bill.

“I would like to point you to the 'Analysis of the Communications Security Establishment Act and Related Provisions in Bill C-59' report, produced by the Citizen Lab and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, CIPPIC. The recommendations laid out in this report should be adopted by the SECU committee.

“In a world and time where digital technologies are being used by so many to threaten our digital safety, we need our government to be helping make the world better, not actively undermining our security.”

As of this morning, our petition has been signed by 9,633 Canadians. On behalf of these signatories, plus the over 300,000 against Conservative Bill C-51, and the other concerned civil society groups who have been unable to join these proceedings themselves, we respectfully ask that you make things right. We are asking you, our elected representatives, to stand up for our privacy and continue the work of repealing Bill C-51. Digital security is critical to Canada's infrastructure, economy, and future. Please do not compromise this in the name of fear or following other countries' bad practices to lead us in a race to the bottom. We need to be stronger than that.

Thank you.

[Dominique Peschard]

Our hope is that the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency can verify that the agencies respect Canadians' rights in the course of their work. That is why we think the agency must first have the necessary resources, as Mr. Mirza previously mentioned. Second, the agency must also be seen and act somewhat as the Privacy Commissioner of Canada does with respect to privacy. In other words, the agency must be clearly seen as an independent organization that also has expertise and whose mandate is to be accountable to the public.

We think that what's wrong about Bill C-59 is that, under it, the agency would report much more to the department and the government than to the people on the way the agencies conduct their business. Bill C-59 could be amended to make the agency operate more as a watchdog reports to the public on the way the agencies respect rights in carrying out their mandates.