Evidence of meeting #41 for National Defence in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was review.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
As I said, you have to change the culture, because before the Snowden revelations or disclosures, nobody would talk about CSE, nobody would talk about my office, and nobody would talk—
Liberal
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
I think it is changing, honestly, yes, because they have made improvements in the last.... I can only talk about the last three years because I've been there for the last three years. They've made a lot of effort to release more information and they are releasing more information, but as I say, nothing is perfect. To be very candid, they could do better.
Do I meet some resistance at times? Yes.
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
They could do better.
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
By releasing more information and giving more explanations.
I'll give you just one example. Two years ago, they didn't want to release any statistics with regard to the number of private communications that were incidentally intercepted. I put on some pressure and finally they did release it. Do you know what the number was? It was 66. They intercept millions of communications and there were only 66 dealing with private communication.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I don't want you to put words in their mouths, but you're obviously talking to them. What's their rationale for that? Why was it difficult for you to convince them to release that?
Why were they saying, “Well, no, we don't want to release this” until you were able to—
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
I'm not saying it's difficult. It just means I have to convince them.
Being a secret organization they're not used to releasing information. This isn't their culture, so you have to convince them that since Snowden, the world has changed. I think they realize that, but as I say, I have to make suggestions. For example, if you look at the U.K. right now, they are releasing much more information than we are here in Canada. It's the same in the States.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
You said that your main responsibility is to make sure that the activities of CSE comply with the law.
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
Yes.
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
Most of the time they do. They always have, except once, two years ago. They did not comply with the law.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Are you confident in saying that they comply with the law?
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
Yes, as the executive director mentioned, our reviews are based on risk analysis. By “risk” I mean the risk to compliance and the risk to the protection of the privacy of Canadians. Every year, we sit down and ask, “Based on what we know, what type of activities should we review this year?” It's based on the risk.
On the other hand, there are certain matters or activities that we review yearly.
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
For example, everything dealing with privacy matters, we will review yearly. We have PIF, the privacy incident file. We review that every year. When privacy is involved, we are very careful. We do all kinds of reviews with regard to privacy.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I want to ask you one more question on Snowden, since you brought that up. What's your concern there? I realize that a lot of information is being released, and that the public therefore needs to be educated as to why this information is being collected. Is the concern with Snowden about what he's been distributing, or is it about the individual? A lot of people will ask why Snowden is only releasing information on the U.S. and hasn't seemed to do anything on many other countries.
What's your concern there? Is it the fact that it could be anybody, or is it directed at him specifically?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Stephen Fuhr
As much as I'd love to hear the answer to that—and I really would—I'm going to have to give the floor over to Mr. Paul-Hus. Maybe someone can go back to that question.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Hello, Mr. Plouffe and Mr. Galbraith. I'll try to be brief.
There's a great deal of talk about privacy. You said that your job is to ensure the privacy of Canadians is respected. However, I'd like to talk about the other aspect. Can you confirm that the CSE team is actually skilled? Do its members have the professional skills and resources needed to protect Canada? Last year, the director of CSE mentioned that the Government of Canada's computer systems were attacked at least a million times a day. We know that, at this time, cyber attacks are becoming the greatest threat around the world. Do you think we have the necessary skills?
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
Again, it's not that I don't want to answer you, Mr. Paul-Hus. However, I can't speak for CSE as such. Maybe this question should be addressed to—
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
As an analyst, what do you say when you see this?
Commissioner, Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner
Yes.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Do you think these people have the skills?