Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) declared "recalcitrant"

The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is the Canadian spy agency equivalent to the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) or France's Directorate General for External Security (DGSE).

The activities of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) are, in theory, subject to oversight “reviews” by law, conducted by the National Security and Intelligence Review Office (NSIRA) and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), which issue an annual report on the activities of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

These reports reveal a consistent recalcitrance by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) towards transparency and the communication of relevant information that would enable “oversight bodies“ to adequately assess the legality, reasonableness and necessity of the activities carried out by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), including information that would reveal failures by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to meet its legal obligations - another element denounced in the numerous reports issued by the “oversight bodies“.

Simply put, the body reviewing the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is essentially dependent on CSE and on what CSE chooses to show it. If evidence is withheld, the “watchdog“ cannot know whether CSE is committing isolated or systemic breaches of the law.

To this end, one of these reports denounced, for example, the fact that "systemic and long-standing difficulties have hampered the OSSNR's ability to adequately review national security activities at the CST". An article published by the newspaper La Presse in 2023 summed up the issue (translated from French):

"Federal security agency recalcitrant to accept independent reviews

(Ottawa) A culture of ’resistance’ to independent reviews at the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) is hampering efforts to ensure the cybersecurity agency complies with the law, according to internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), an agency charged with overseeing security agencies, expressed frustration in 2021, saying that ’long-standing and systemic challenges have hampered NSIRA's ability to adequately review national security activities at CSE’. […]

CSE monitors communications […], including emails, phone calls, text messages, and satellite transmissions. […]

The agency is a key part of the information-sharing network known as the Five Eyes, formed by Canada, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

The NSIRA released the internal documents last month under the Access to Information Act, following a request by Bill Robinson, a senior fellow at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. Mr. Robinson had requested a copy of documents related to discussions on CSE cooperation.

In January 2021, a NSIRA member expressed concerns to former Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan that the relationship between the two bodies was not meeting expectations.

A report detailing the conversation indicates that ’the focus was on the lack of access to CSE information’, as well as response delays that could add up to three months to the review.

The CSE ’requires a cultural shift away from resistance, obfuscation, and defensiveness to cooperation, transparency, and positive engagement’, states a 2021 memo.

These challenges ’negatively impact our ability to fulfill our mandate and ensure transparency and accountability in CSE's activities’.

According to Mr. Robinson, these frustrations are worrisome, as ’reviews are a crucial means of ensuring these agencies are functioning well’ […]."