Ep 148 Review Review! Evaluating the First Reports from NSIRA and the Office of the Information Commissioner

In this episode, Stephanie and Leah sit down with Bill Robinson, Citizen Lab Fellow and one of Canada’s leading national security researchers, to discuss the first reports by two of Canada’s new intelligence review and oversight bodies, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) and the Intelligence Commissioner (IC). The three make comparisons to prior reports produced by their predecessors (the Security and Intelligence Review Committee and the Office of the Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment respectively). In some cases, they are left wanting for some of the detail of previous reports. While the trio sometimes dig into the weedy details in these reports, they do so in the context of an important question: Bill C-59 augmented the powers of the national security agencies on the understanding that this would be balanced by an enhanced review process – is that expectation being met here?

Resources:

 NSIRA, 2019 Annual Report

ICO, 2019 Annual Report

Check out Bill Robinson’s blog on the NSIRA report here: https://luxexumbra.blogspot.com/2020/12/first-nsira-annual-report-released.html

For more information on some of the concepts in this episode, see Forcese and West, National Security Law, Safeguarding Information: Chapters 12-13; Review: Chapter 18

Online Course at a University Called INTREPID: National Security Law Primer, Module: Accountability; Module: Search 1 and 2; Module: Screen