Recent items of interest

Recent news and commentary related to CSE or signals intelligence in general:

- Justin Ling & Ben Makuch, "New Documents Show Canada Fired Back Diplomatically at China Over Hacking," VICE News, 29 May 2015.

- Michael Geist (ed.), Law, Privacy and Surveillance in Canada in the Post-Snowden Era, University of Ottawa Press, 28 May 2015. Abstract. Full text (298-page PDF) of the book.

- Michael Geist, "You’re on Your Own: How the Government Wants Canadians To Sacrifice Their Personal Security," michaelgeist.ca, 28 May 2015.

- Craig Forcese, "The Ugly Canadian? International Law and Canada’s New Covert National Security Vision," National Security Law blog, 28 May 2015.

- Dan Froomkin, "U.N. Report Asserts Encryption as a Human Right in the Digital Age," The Intercept, 28 May 2015.

- Christopher Parsons, The Governance of Telecommunications Surveillance: How Opaque and Unaccountable Practices and Policies Threaten Canadians, Telecommunications Transparency Project, 26 May 2015. News release. Full text (106-page PDF) of report. News coverage: Emily Chung, "Rampant telecom surveillance conducted with little transparency, oversight," CBC News, 26 May 2015.

- John Allemang, "Welcome to CFS Alert," Globe and Mail, 21 May 2015.

- "More money from Stephen Harper for RCMP and border services to fight terrorism," Canadian Press, 21 May 2015.

- Eric Jardine, "Why Edward Snowden may be the last whistleblower," Globe and Mail, 21 May 2015.

- Canada's Privacy Plan: A Crowdsourced Agenda for Tackling Canada's Privacy Deficit, OpenMedia, 20 May 2015. Overview. Full text (96-page PDF) of report.

- Craig Forcese, "Camden versus Turing: The Future of Legal Privacy," National Security Law blog, 20 May 2015.

- Adam Molnar, "Expanding Powers of ‘Lawful Disruption’ into Cyberspace," Mackenzie Institute, 20 May 2015.

- Elizabeth Renzetti, "Why are we trading liberty for security?" Globe and Mail, 18 May 2015.

- Grant Mitchell, Roméo Dallaire & Hugh Segal, "Canada’s national security agencies need parliamentary oversight," Toronto Star, 17 May 2015.

- Editorial, "The twilight of ‘bulk surveillance’," Globe and Mail, 17 May 2015.

- Alex Boutilier, "CSIS can’t keep up with ‘daily’ state-sponsored cyber attacks," Toronto Star, 14 May 2015.

- Alex Boutilier, "CSIS warns of ‘extremist’ opposition to oil and gas sector," Toronto Star, 14 May 2015.

- Chris Parsons, "Canadian Signals Intelligence Requires Parliamentary Review," Mackenzie Institute, 13 May 2015.

- "Rathgeber wants oversight for spy agency," CBC News, 13 May 2015.

- Justin Ling, "New Mass Surveillance Laws Come to Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, as the NSA May Have Its Wings Clipped," VICE News, 12 May 2015.

- Mike Blanchfield, "Canada hosted Five Eyes meeting to target global cyberbullies: MacKay," Canadian Press, 11 May 2015.

- James Bamford, "Frozen Assets: The newest front in global espionage is one of the least habitable locales on Earth—the Arctic," Foreign Policy, 11 May 2015.

- Justin Ling, "Canada's National Security Advisor Still Suspects Canadian Politicians Are Under Foreign Influence," VICE News, 29 April 2015.

- Colin Freeze, "Canadian spy watchdogs tell Parliament they need to talk with each other," Globe and Mail, 23 April 2015. See also Ian MacLeod, "Security-bill snooping goes too far, federal watchdogs warn," Ottawa Citizen, 23 April 2015. Transcript of the testimony here.

- Amber Hildebrandt, "CSE worried about how its use of Canadian metadata might be viewed," CBC News, 21 April 2015. Original documents here.

- Ian MacLeod, "Federal budget: More than $400 million to be spent on national security," Ottawa Citizen, 21 April 2015.

- Ian MacLeod, "Spy watchdog may become super-sized: experts," Ottawa Citizen, 21 April 2015.

- Alex Boutilier, "2015 budget outlines ‘cyber security’ legislation," Toronto Star, 21 April 2015.

- Justin Ling, "Harper's New Budget Is Making it Rain on Canada’s Military and Spies," VICE, 21 April 2015.

- Testimony of CSE Chief Greta Bossenmaier to Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence re Bill C-51, 20 April 2015.

- David Pugliese, "HMCS Athabaskan to take part in Op Caribbe," Ottawa Citizen, 16 April 2015. Cryptologic Direct Support Element on board?

- Justin Ling, "We Spoke to Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister in Germany, Where No One Taps Phones," VICE, 15 April 2015.

- Jim Bronskill, "Cyberattacks on federal research agency tried to beat the clock," Canadian Press, 15 April 2015.

- Sean Silcoff, "Elite global group fights digital spying, cybertheft," Globe and Mail, 15 April 2015. The group's report: "Toward a Social Compact for Digital Privacy and Security," Global Commission on Internet Governance, 15 April 2015.

- Justin Ling & Ben Makuch, "How Canada is Helping Nab Thousands of Kilos of Blow in the Caribbean," VICE, 14 April 2015. For another way Canada helps out, check out the SANDKEY program: David Pugliese, "Canadian Spies Join US Drug War," Ottawa Citizen, 17 May 2001. More here.

- Amber Hildebrandt, "Kim Dotcom Megaupload case falters over sharing Canadian data," CBC News, 13 April 2015.

- Letter from CSE Commissioner Jean-Pierre Plouffe to Daryl Kramp, Chair, Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, 6 March 2015:

I am writing with respect to Bill C-51, Part 1, Security of Canada Information Sharing Act, which allows the sharing of information among Government of Canada institutions for national security purposes. Following my reading of the Bill, I question why the existing security and intelligence review bodies are not included in this proposed legislation.

...

As I stated in my public annual report, tabled in Parliament last August, and as my predecessor also stated, there is a limited amount of co-operation that can occur among the review bodies within existing legislative mandates. However, an explicit authority to co-operate and share information would strengthen review capacity and effectiveness. This authority becomes that much more important in the evolving context of ever greater co-operation between the intelligence and security agencies.

Sharing of information among the existing review bodies would allow one to alert another as to what information was being shared, to follow the trail of that information and to ensure that the sharing of information complied with the law and that the privacy of Canadians was protected.

On a separate but nonetheless related issue, permit me to make an additional point.

I regret that an opportunity has not been seized to introduce amendments to the National Defence Act to eliminate ambiguities that were long ago identified by my predecessors. Eliminating these ambiguities seeks to clarify key terms in CSE’s legislated authority and resolve legal interpretation issues.

That would be the amendments that the government promised were a legislative priority EIGHT years ago.


SIGINT history

And for those interested in SIGINT history:

- Evan Radford, "Secrecy, humility and duty in a time of war," Calgary Herald, 25 May 2015:

From 1944 until 1946, [Marion] Booth worked with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service — also known as the Wrens — in Victoria, British Columbia. Practicing wireless telegraphy, she used short wave radio, typing and morse code to intercept Japanese communications.

“I think the messages intercepted were between (Japanese) battle ships,” she said.

“I had a Japanese typewriter, and I typed out what I heard (in morse code). I couldn’t read it, but I passed it along to be read and decoded,” she said.

After the war ended, she returned to Ottawa, her hometown, and was faced with a choice: attend university or continue spying for the Canadian government. The Communications Branch of the National Research Council had been recruiting her.

“The $20 or $25 (per month) they offered looked pretty good. That’s why (close friend) Sally Coates and I decided we’d stay on with CB and go to university later,” she said.

Booth trained in the Russian division, while Coates was sent to the Chinese division.

As the Cold War deepened, Booth learned, intercepted and translated Russian. While at the National Research Council, she collaborated with fellow spies at Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters at Bletchley Park and the National Security Administration [sic], the latter of which took her to Washington DC for a year.

...

Sitting in her bright, corner suite apartment in west-central Calgary, Booth seems uninterested in the Russian messages she intercepted.

“I didn’t see anything that was world shattering. Most of the things I saw were pretty plebeian. They were just a lot of five-year quotas (of grain) in Russia,” she said.