OTTAWA —
The national cyberspying agency monitored a Canadian citizen, contrary to policy, for several years due to a series of internal mistakes, a newly released watchdog report says.
The Ottawa-based Communications Security Establishment collects a wide array of foreign communications, including phone calls and emails, in search of information of interest to Canada.
The CSE is forbidden by law from directing its activities against Canadians anywhere in the world and must try to protect their privacy when using or keeping intercepted information.
CSE commissioner Jean-Pierre Plouffe, the long-time watchdog over the agency, noticed a privacy lapse that prompted him to conduct an in-depth review.
In his 2018-19 annual report, recently tabled in Parliament, Plouffe says a foreign national who was identified as possibly holding Canadian citizenship was monitored by the CSE from 2010 to 2015.
As part of Canada’s role in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, the CSE works closely with spy services from the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2018, one of these agencies, which the report does not identify, drew CSE’s attention to the fact that the issue of the person’s nationality “had not been fully addressed” in 2010 when his or her possible Canadian citizenship was first discovered, Plouffe’s report says.
The CSE then “obtained the necessary information to confirm that the targeted person was indeed Canadian,” the report says.
It is the CSE’s usual practice to protect the privacy of people who are identified as possibly Canadian in the same way as those whose citizenship is confirmed, Plouffe says.
He found that CSE analysts did not knowingly target the Canadian and that a series of factors led to the agency’s error. Among them: the incident was discovered over a holiday, separate targeting teams responsible for different technical aspects of collecting information did not properly co-ordinate their responses, and the CSE failed to identify the possible Canadian as such in its targeting database.
Ultimately, Plouffe found that although the CSE complied with the law, the incident highlighted gaps in the agency’s information management, privacy-protection procedures and policy guidance related to targets who might be Canadian but whose status is in question.
He says the risk of such an error recurring is low given the CSE has taken several steps to avoid inadvertently targeting Canadians now, including adopting new tools and information-management procedures.
Plouffe was satisfied with the response and made no recommendations.
Ryan Foreman, a CSE spokesman, said he could not provide any additional details about the incident.
The episode “certainly is evidence that a constant watch needs to be maintained” on the agency’s evolving practices, said Bill Robinson, a research fellow with The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
“It’s concerning to see these things come up year after year,” said Robinson, who closely watches the CSE.
The spy service’s corrective steps are undoubtedly sincere but they don’t mean the same sort of problem won’t happen again, he added.
Since Plouffe’s report was written, the review duties of the commissioner’s office have been absorbed into a new watchdog, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, with a broader mandate.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2020.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
