Parliamentary Accountability

The Minister

The Minister of National Defence is accountable to Cabinet and Parliament for all CSEC activities while providing direction on how it carries out its mandate. The Chief, CSEC reports to the Minister of National Defence. The CSE Commissioner also prepares annual reports to the Minister on the lawfulness of CSEC activities.

The Office of the CSE Commissioner

The Office of the CSE Commissioner was established in 1996 under the Inquiries Act, specifically to conduct in-depth independent reviews of CSEC. Former Justice of the Federal Court of Canada, Appeal Division and Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada The Honourable Robert Décary, Q.C. currently serves as CSE Commissioner. As set forth in the Anti-Terrorism Act, the duties of the Commissioner are threefold:

  • to review CSEC's activities to ensure they are in compliance with the law
  • in response to a complaint, to undertake any investigation that the Commissioner considers necessary
  • to inform the Minister of National Defence and Attorney General of Canada of any CSEC activity that the Commissioner believes may not be in compliance with the law.

The Commissioner is also charged with hearing concerns raised about CSEC's activities under the 'public interest defence' provisions of the Security of Information Act.

To carry out this review mandate, the Commissioner and his staff are guaranteed access to all CSEC personnel, information and documentation. If the Commissioner encounters any activity that he believes is not compliant with the law, he is obligated to inform both the Minister of National Defence and the Attorney General.

The Commissioner's work involves the thorough review of selected CSEC activities. In any given year, numerous reviews are conducted which cover a variety of CSEC activities. The results are reported in detail to the Minister of National Defence but, because they contain classified information, they are not made public. The reviews are, however, listed in the commissioner's annual report to the Minister, which is subsequently tabled in Parliament. Since 1996, each annual report has confirmed the lawfulness of the wide range of activities reviewed.