Office of the Intelligence Commissioner
The Intelligence Commissioner’s mandate is to approve – or not approve – certain national security and intelligence activities planned by the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
In the interest of national security and intelligence collection, these agencies may sometimes engage in activities that could involve breaking the laws of Canada or another country, or interfere with the privacy interests of Canadians. Any activities of this kind must first be authorized in writing by the minister responsible for the agency involved or, in some cases, by the Director of CSIS. The ministerial authorization must include the conclusions – effectively the reasons – supporting the activities that are being authorized.
The Intelligence Commissioner reviews the conclusions given for authorizing the activities to determine whether they meet the test of “reasonableness” as recognized by Canadian courts. If so, the Intelligence Commissioner approves the ministerial authorization, and the agency can proceed with the planned activities. The activities cannot take place without approval from the Intelligence Commissioner.
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Fraudulent calls alert
There have been recent reports of fraudulent phone calls that appear to be from the Office of the Intelligence Commissioner, using a spoofed Office of the Intelligence Commissioner phone number. The Office of the Intelligence Commissioner does not make unsolicited phone calls to individual Canadians.
If you’ve received a suspicious phone call and wish to report it, contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, the agency responsible for dealing with fraudulent calls of this nature.
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