Judge rules that intelligence agency's payments to terrorism moles indicate 'a cavalier institutional approach to the duty of candour and, regrettably, the rule of law'
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
“The circumstances disclosed here suggest a degree of institutional disregard for – or, at the very least, a cavalier institutional approach to – the duty of candour and, regrettably, the rule of law,” Judge Gleeson’s ruling says.Justice Gleeson was reviewing several past CSIS applications for warrants to use invasive surveillance powers.
The Federal Court ruling highlights seven instances in which CSIS provided money to individuals known to be close to terrorist causes who had helped Canadian intelligence officers. One involved payments “totalling less than $25,000, to an individual known to be facilitating or carrying out terrorism.” At the lower end of the scale, CSIS gave one person “a financial benefit valued at less than $20.
For several years before that, federal Department of Justice lawyers had warned CSIS that ongoing payments ran a “high risk” of violating anti-terrorism-financing provisions added to the Criminal Code in the early 2000s.Judge Gleeson said CSIS should have interpreted Justice Canada’s advice as a red light. But the service continued moving money even though its legal shield was not yet in place.
In 2013, a judge ruled that CSIS made “strategic” omissions about the reach of its international spying partnerships. In 2016, another judge ruled that CSIS verged on contempt of court by failing to tell judges about a data analytics centre where it warehoused telecommunications information.
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