The New Democrats are calling for “strong, new oversight” of the Canada’s spy agency in the wake of a court decision that has found that the organization illegally kept electronic data about people for 10 years.

In a news conference on Parliament Hill on Friday, NDP justice critic Murray Rankin called the judgment “very disturbing” and said it reveals “gross abuse of power by Canada’s spy agency.”

“It’s a massive breach of privacy of Canadians at issue here, and it shows a grave disregard for the rule of law,” Rankin said, adding those aren’t his words but those of Justice Simon Noel, the federal court judge who issued the ruling.

Rankin said Bill C-22, which is before Parliament, “just simply doesn’t do the job.” Bill C-22 proposes to create a parliamentary committee devoted to security and intelligence.

“We need a watchdog with teeth and claws with full unimpeded access to information and a real-time oversight function,” Rankin said.

He added the court ruling “underscores” the “real risks” of the new powers given to Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) under Bill C-51, an anti-terrorism act passed in 2015.

Speaking to reporters on Friday about the ruling, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he is taking “very seriously” the finding that “CSIS had failed in its duty to be candid” with the court.

“(CSIS) has confirmed to me that it is taking immediate steps to address the court’s decision,” Goodale said. “It has blocked all access to, and analysis of, any associated data while it considers its next steps to comply.”

Goodale also said he is asking the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) to “monitor the situation carefully to ensure compliance.” SIRC is an independent review body that reports to Parliament on CSIS operations.

In a ruling made public on Thursday, Justice Simon Noel said CSIS illegally held on to potentially revealing electronic data about people over a 10-year time period. The court found that the spy agency breached its responsibility to inform the court of its electronic data collection, given that the information was gathered using judicial warrants.

The ruling also stated that CSIS should not have held on to the information since it was not directly related to threats to Canada’s security.

The material retained by CSIS over the 10-year period was metadata, which is information associated with a communication such as a phone number or email address.