by Ian Macleod
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: October 5, 2009


OTTAWA — Canada's spy service has won permission to electronically spy on Canadians abroad, closing a loophole that prevented government security agents from monitoring citizens suspected as national security threats once they left the country.

A Federal Court ruling released Tuesday reveals the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was granted an emergency warrant earlier this year to intercept the overseas communications of two unidentified Canadians suspected as security threats.

Until then, CSIS had been largely restricted to domestic operations and its warrant authorizations stopped at the border, a festering complaint within the agency in an age of global terrorism and espionage.

While most details of the case remain secret, the unidentified individuals are suspected of engaging in "threats to the security of Canada ... while travelling outside of Canada."

The agency sought "urgent" permission from the court in January for warrants under the CSIS Act authorizing "intrusive investigative techniques" to be used against the pair outside of Canada. Justice Richard Mosley granted a three-month warrant and extended it in April for an additional nine months.

"As facts of the present application disclose, individuals who pose a threat to the security of Canada may move easily and rapidly from one country to another and maintain lines of communication with others of like mind," wrote Mosley in a highly censored version of his reasons released Tuesday.

[ Read the rest ... ]