CSIS efforts to derail threats to 2019 election sometimes skirted law: watchdog

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau celebrates at Liberal election headquarters in Montreal on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA -

The national spy watchdog says Canada's intelligence service sometimes strayed from the law when trying to disrupt threats from hostile foreign states in the 2019 election.

In a new report, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency sheds fresh light on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's use of powers to reduce threats, ushered in six years ago.

Such measures could involve CSIS altering websites, blocking communications or financial transactions, and interfering with tools or devices.

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The review agency looked at the topical issue of threat-reduction measures, approved in the context of the 2019 federal election, that were intended to ward off threats to Canada's democratic institutions.

The agency found most of the measures taken by CSIS satisfied requirements spelled out in legislation governing the spy service.

It concluded, however, that in “a limited number” of cases the actions ran afoul of the CSIS Act because there was no rational link between a person targeted under the measure and the actual threat.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2021.