On June 18 of this year, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, appointed me Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment. I must admit that it was with some apprehension and trepidation that I agreed to return—part time, I should specify—to public life. There was apprehension because I was asked to fill the shoes of great jurists like Antonio Lamer, Claude Bisson, Charles Gonthier and Peter Cory, and trepidation because trying to reconcile the rights of Canadians to privacy with the need to gather foreign intelligence and ensure Canada's security represents an utterly fascinating challenge.
My role, as you well know, is defined in the National Defence Act. Generally speaking, it involves reviewing the activities of the CSE so as to ensure their compliance with the law, conducting any investigations I deem necessary in response to complaints about the CSE, and informing the Minister of National Defence and the Attorney General of Canada of any CSE activities that I believe may not be in compliance with the law.
To understand my role, one must first have a clear understanding of CSE's mandate, as well as its limitations. Since the Anti-terrorism Act came into effect in December 2001, the functions of the CSE have basically been as follows—and you will understand that I'm reducing them here to their essentials: to gather foreign signals intelligence; to help ensure the protection of electronic information and information infrastructures of importance to the Government of Canada; and to offer technical and operational assistance to federal law enforcement and security agencies, such as the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Regarding the first two of these mandates, CSE's activities are subject to three legislative limitations of the utmost importance. Firstly, CSE is not authorized to conduct activities that target Canadians, wherever they might be in the world, nor can they target people here in Canada.
With regard to the second limitation, since situations may arise where, in conducting these two activities, CSE may unintentionally intercept a one-end Canadian communication or obtain information about Canadians, and since such information may prove essential to international affairs, defence or security, the act permits this information to be used and retained, but only if measures are in place to protect the privacy of Canadians.
And with regard to the third limitation, to provide a formal framework for the unintentional interception of private communications, the act requires express authorization by the Minister of National Defence once he or she is satisfied that specific conditions provided for in the act have been met. These are known as ministerial authorizations.
Within this context, my mandate first is to ensure that the CSE in its operational approach only targets foreign entities outside Canada; second, to ensure that the activities conducted by CSE under ministerial authorization are those authorized by the minister, and to report on this review to the minister; and third, to ensure that in all the activities it undertakes, CSE puts in place, and effectively applies, measures to protect the privacy of Canadians.
Regarding its third function, that of helping federal law enforcement and security agencies, CSE operates as an agent of the organization in question and its activities are subject to the limitations that govern that same organization under the laws that apply to it. Once again, my role consists of ensuring that the activities of CSE comply with the law. The job of monitoring the lawfulness of the activities of these other agencies is entrusted to other institutions, for example, the Security Intelligence Review Committee and the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.
Each year, the commissioner submits a report to the minister on his activities, which the minister is then required to table in Parliament. In addition, during the year, the commissioner presents the minister with classified reports containing the results of reviews of CSE activities. Here I would like to note that two years ago, the commissioner's office became an autonomous and independent agency with its own appropriation from Parliament.
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, in December 2001, when the Anti-Terrorism Act was adopted, Parliament was faced with a dilemma. Within Canada, every individual has a quasi-constitutional right with respect to his or her privacy. And every person has a constitutional right with respect to security of the person. In addition, the state has an obligation to protect each of these individual rights and to ensure the country's security as well. These rights and obligations are not easy to reconcile: what in fact would the right to privacy mean, or the right to security of the person, in a society where security was no longer taken for granted or that was no longer free and democratic. In the Anti-Terrorism Act, Parliament tried to walk a fine line; it adopted a solution it deemed just, necessary and appropriate under the circumstances so as to allow the state to ensure its security and that of Canadians while at the same time respecting the right of every Canadian to privacy. Parliament conferred on the Commissioner, which is my role now, with respect to the activities of the CSE, the mandate to ensure that CSE fulfils the obligations imposed on it by Part V.1 of the National Defence Act, as that act was amended by the Anti-Terrorism Act, and by all other Canadian laws, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Parliament has invested the Commissioner with extraordinary powers to perform his functions. I will not hesitate, where necessary, to exercise them.
In conclusion, I hope you will allow me to praise the wonderful work being done by the members of my team, who are small in number but of the highest quality. Competent, hard-working, conscientious, dedicated to their mission, these men and women ably facilitated my entry into the fascinating, but hugely complex, world of foreign intelligence. I am grateful also to the chief of CSE, John Adams, who staged a series of briefings that gave me a better understanding of the role and activities of CSE. I am fully aware, however, that my learning has just begun.
Thank you. I would be happy at this time to answer any questions you may have.