We need greater transparency and accountability over what state enforcement and intelligence agencies do. The commission may not produce it.
That may be good news to those who want domestic terrorism, even domestic protests, more readily dealt with, and to security intelligence and law enforcement agencies seeking more powers. It will, however, be of concern to civil libertarians and other groups who want more freedoms, and better controls, greater transparency and accountability over what state enforcement and intelligence agencies do.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
A little-known centre at Public Safety Canada, the Strategic Coordination Centre for Information Sharing, is helping tighten up what departments’ security information can or cannot be released and given to parliamentary committees and the public. And it is hard for the public to know anything about this secretive intelligence gatekeeper centre at all, when there is no legal requirement for it to report its activities.
Meanwhile, the build-up of a backlog in not declassifying records — many historically carrying classified national security and law enforcement designations — has reached a crisis point. There is no longer a mandatory 30-year deadline to declassify documents, as there was before the access to information act came into existence in 1983 . Addressing the increasing large backlog is not a government priority.
In the midst of the information crisis comes the Commission examination under Justice Paul Rouleau. During its work, more than the usual number of security-related documents were released and cross-examination was done at public hearings. But that happened largely because there was a built-in compulsory judicial inquiry required under the federal Emergencies Act and because political authorities wanted to show they were justified in using the Act.
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