Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Nicole Giles, and I am deputy director and senior assistant deputy minister for policy and strategic partnerships at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Responsibility for disclosure, access to information and privacy requests falls within my portfolio.
I'd first of all like to thank the committee for inviting CSIS to be part of this important study. Transparency and accountability are core values for CSIS, and we view strong access to information and privacy systems as absolutely foundational.
I'll begin with a brief word on the mandate of CSIS to help situate our activities. Our mandate and authorities are set out in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, which guides everything we do.
First and foremost, we investigate threats to the security of Canada, which are: espionage and sabotage, foreign interference, terrorism and extremism, and subversion.
We provide information and advice to the Government of Canada on these threats and may take measures to reduce threats to the security of Canada.
CSIS also provides security assessments on individuals who require access to classified information or sensitive files within the Government of Canada, as well as security advice relevant to the exercise of the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Despite being an organization that must keep secrets, we are not a secret organization. As a national security agency, many of our activities do need to be protected from disclosure. The release of classified information can reveal sensitive sources, methodologies and techniques, which can be detrimental and even work counter to CSIS’s efforts to protecting Canada and Canadians from national security threats. It can jeopardize the integrity of our operations, pose risks to the physical safety and security of our human sources and our employees, and hinder our ability to protect Canadians.
That is why CSIS maintains robust mechanisms such as oversight and review, and has policies and procedures to safeguard information. This includes necessary segregation, safe handling, retention and destruction practices. CSIS’s stringent policies are supported by regular training as well as regular review and compliance.
While we need to keep secrets and protect information, we also need to be transparent. This poses a special challenge for CSIS. The public’s right to access information is balanced against the legitimate need to protect sensitive information and to maintain the effective functioning of government. In administering access to information and privacy requests, CSIS therefore must conduct line-by-line reviews to ensure that we release as much information as possible, while protecting information that could be detrimental if disclosed.
As you can imagine, line-by-line reviews take time. Despite this, CSIS has a strong history of providing high-quality and timely responses to requests. For example, in 2021-22, CSIS’s on-time compliance rates for Privacy Act and access to information requests was 94%. Our access to information on-time compliance rate has stood in the mid to high nineties over the past decade, with the exception of 2020-21, when it dropped to 81% due to COVID restrictions.
For this and other reasons, in 2019, CSIS received the Information Commissioner's award for excellence in ATIP administration.
In addition, CSIS regularly and proactively publishes information, including summaries of recent access to information releases, to allow the public to access previously released records.
Access to information and privacy requests are just one way that CSIS communicates information to Canadians. Over the past several years, we have taken concrete steps to increase our transparency and engagement with Canadians through various resources, including our annual public report; threat publications in over seven languages; speeches; briefings to engage with provinces and territories, indigenous groups, the business sector and academic and community organizations; and a budding social media presence.
All these transparency efforts aim to better inform our population, recognizing that all Canadians have a role to play in protecting our national security.
CSIS constantly seeks to strike the right balance between the promotion of transparency and accountability in government institutions and the protection of national security interests. As an intelligence agency, CSIS faces unique disclosure challenges, which we strive to meet in the very best interests of Canadians.
I would now be happy to take your questions.
Thank you.