Communications Security Establishment
Encyclopedia
The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC or CSE) (CSTC or CST) is the Canadian government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

's national cryptologic agency. Administered under the Department of National Defence
Department of National Defence (Canada)
The Department of National Defence , frequently referred to by its acronym DND, is the department within the government of Canada with responsibility for all matters concerning the defence of Canada...

 (DND), it is charged with the duty of keeping track of foreign signals intelligence (SIGINT), and protecting Canadian government electronic information and communication networks. The CSEC is accountable to the Minister of National Defence
Minister of National Defence (Canada)
The Minister of National Defence is a Minister of the Crown; the Canadian politician within the Cabinet of Canada responsible for the Department of National Defence which oversees the Canadian Forces....

 through two deputy ministers, the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister
National Security Advisor (Canada)
The National Security Advisor is an associate secretary in the Privy Council Office responsible for Security and Intelligence...

 is responsible for policy and operations while the Deputy Minister of National Defence is responsible for administration. The Minister of National Defence is in turn accountable to the Cabinet
Cabinet of Canada
The Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada...

 and Parliament
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...

.

History

The CSEC was established in 1946 as the Communications Branch of the National Research Council
National Research Council of Canada
The National Research Council is an agency of the Government of Canada which conducts scientific research and development.- History :...

 (CBNRC), and was transferred to the DND in 1975 by an Order in Council. The origins of the CSEC can be traced back to the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 where the civilian organization worked with intercepted foreign electronic communications, collected largely from the Canadian Signal Corps
Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals was a corps of the Canadian Army. Major Wallace Bruce Matthews Carruthers established the corps in 1903, making it the first independent Signal Corps in the British Empire...

 station at Rockcliffe airport
Ottawa/Rockcliffe Airport
Ottawa/Rockcliffe Airport or Rockcliffe Airport, , a former military base, is a non-towered airport located on the south shore of the Ottawa River, northeast of Downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada...

 in Ottawa. CSEC also worked with CFS Leitrim, located just south of Ottawa, which is Canada's oldest operational signal intelligence collection station. Established by the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals in 1941 as 1 Special Wireless Station and renamed Ottawa Wireless Station in 1949, CFS Leitrim acquired its current name when the Supplementary Radio System (SUPRAD) was created in 1966. In 1946, the station's complement was 75 personnel. The current strength (2005) is 450 military personnel and 28 civilian employees. This unit successfully decrypted, translated, and analyzed these foreign signals, and turned that raw information into useful intelligence reports during the course of the war.

The CSEC and the information it gathered and shared was secret for 34 years, when the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 program The Fifth Estate
The fifth estate
the fifth estate is a Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into...

did a story on the organization, resulting in an outcry in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 and an admission by the Canadian government that the organization existed. The CSEC is now publicly known, and occupies several buildings in Ottawa, including the well-known Edward Drake Building
Edward Drake Building
The Edward Drake Building represents one of the best examples of modernist architecture in Canada's National Capital Region.Located in Ottawa, Ontario, the building was designed by D.G. McKinstry and constructed between 1961 and 1964...

 and the neighbouring Sir Leonard Tilley Building
Sir Leonard Tilley Building
Sir Leonard Tilley Building and Annex is a Canadian federal office building property consisting of two buildings and operated by the Public Works and Government Services Canada and located at 719 Heron Road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was designed by Bemi & Associates Architects in 1987. The...

.

During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, CSEC was primarily responsible for providing SIGINT data to the Department of National Defence regarding the military operation
Military operation
Military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state's favor. Operations may be of combat or non-combat types, and are referred to by a code name for the purpose...

s of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Since then, CSEC has diversified and now is the primary SIGINT resource in Canada. The CSEC also provides technical advice, guidance and services to the Government of Canada to maintain the security of its information and information infrastructures.

In early 2008, in line with the Federal Identity Program
Federal Identity Program
The Federal Identity Program is the Canadian government's corporate identity program. The purpose of the FIP is to clearly identify each program and service of the government or the government of Canada in general. Managed by the Treasury Board Secretariat, this program, and the government's...

 (FIP) of the Government of Canada, which requires all federal agencies to have the word Canada in their name, CSE adopted the applied title Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) or (CSTC).

Examination Unit

The Examination Unit was established on June
June
June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and one of the four months with a length of 30 days. Ovid provides two etymologies for June's name in his poem concerning the months entitled the Fasti...

 1941 as a branch of the National Research Council of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. At that time the main station for the unit was a house near the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

's Laurier Avenue residence. The unit chose this location because they felt it would draw no suspicion to the enemies. The original mandate of the Examination Unit was to intercept the communications of Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

 and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Its mandate later expanded to include interception and decryption of Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 communications after Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 entered World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The unit was estimated to have been comprised 45 staff members.

In September of 1945, U.S. president
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Truman declared that it was vital that peace time signal intelligence (SIGINT
SIGINT
Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...

) operations be carried out. Later on in December of that same year, Canadian authorities came to this conclusion also. For this reason, the Examination Unit was renamed the Communications Branch.

Role

Unique within Canada's security and intelligence community, the Communications Security Establishment Canada employs code-makers and code-breakers (cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information that is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves knowing how the system works and finding a secret key...

) to provide the Government of Canada with information technology security (IT Security)
Information security
Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction....

 and foreign signals intelligence services. CSEC also provides technical and operational assistance to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

 and federal law enforcement and security agencies, including the Canada Border Services Agency
Canada Border Services Agency
The Canada Border Services Agency is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border enforcement, immigration enforcement and customs services....

 and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
Canadian Air Transport Security Authority
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority is a Canadian Crown corporation responsible for the security screening at the 89 designated airports in Canada...

.

Signal intelligence

CSEC’s SIGINT
SIGINT
Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...

 program produces intelligence that responds to Canadian government requirements. At CFS Leitrim
CFS Leitrim
Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, also referred to as CFS Leitrim, is an important Canadian Forces Station located in the neighbourhood of Leitrim near Ottawa, Ontario...

, the main SIGINT coalition CSEC facility in the south end of Ottawa, the establishment collects foreign intelligence that can be used by the government for strategic warning, policy formulation, decision-making in the fields of national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

 and national defence, and day-to-day assessment of foreign capabilities and intentions. The station at Leitrim specializes in intercepting electronic communications to and from embassies in Ottawa. Other CSEC SIGINT facilities are located at: CFB Gander
CFB Gander
Canadian Forces Base Gander , is a Canadian Forces Base located in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is operated as an air force base by the Royal Canadian Air Force and is home to air/marine search and rescue operations that cover a vast swath of the western North Atlantic and southern Arctic...

 Newfoundland with a detachment from CFS Leitrim, CFS Masset, BC (under remote control from CFS Leitrim) and CFS Alert
CFS Alert
Canadian Forces Station Alert, also CFS Alert, is a Canadian Forces signals intelligence intercept facility located in Alert, Nunavut on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island, at ....

, Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...

.

The success of this process is founded on CSEC’s understanding of the leading-edge technologies used by the global information infrastructure. CSEC relies on its closest foreign intelligence allies, the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand to share the collection burden and the resulting intelligence yield. Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 is a substantial beneficiary of the collaborative effort within the partnership to collect and report on foreign communications.

During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, CSEC’s primary client for signals intelligence was National Defence, and its focus was the military operations of the then Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Since the end of the Cold War, Government of Canada requirements have evolved to include a wide variety of political, defence, and security issues of interest to a much broader range of client departments.

While these continue to be key intelligence priorities for Government of Canada decision-makers, increasing focus on protecting the safety of Canadians is prompting greater interest in intelligence on transnational issues, including terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

.

Code Breaking Equipment

CSE code breaking capabilities degraded substantially in the sixties and seventies but were upgraded with the acquisition of a Cray X-MP/11 (modified) supercomputer delivered to the Sir Leonard Tilley building in March 1985 and the hiring of code breaking analysts. It was, at the time, the most powerful computer in Canada. In the early 1990s, the Establishment purchased a Floating Point Systems FPS 522-EA supercomputer at a cost of $1,620,371. This machine was upgraded to a Cray S-MP superserver after Cray acquired Floating Point Systems in December in 1991 and used the Folklore Operating System supplied by the NSA in the US. These machines are now retired.
Little information is available on the types of computers used by the CSEC since then. However, Cray in the US has produced a number of improved supercomputers since then. These include the Cray SX-6, early 2000s, the Cray X1
Cray X1
The Cray X1 is a non-uniform memory access, vector processor supercomputer manufactured and sold by Cray Inc. since 2003. The X1 is often described as the unification of the Cray T90, Cray SV1, and Cray T3E architectures into a single machine...

, 2003 (development funded in part by the NSA), Cray XD1
Cray XD1
The Cray XD1 was an entry-level supercomputer range, made by Cray Inc.The XD1 uses AMD Opteron 64-bit CPUs, and utilizes the Direct Connect Architecture over HyperTransport to remove the bottleneck at the PCI and contention at the memory. The MPI latency is ¼ that of Infiniband, and 1/30...

, 2004, Cray XT3, Cray XT4
Cray XT4
The Cray XT4 is an updated version of the Cray XT3 supercomputer. It was released on November 18, 2006. It includes an updated version of the SeaStar interconnect router called SeaStar2, processor sockets for Socket AM2 Opteron processors, and 240-pin unbuffered DDR2 memory...

, 2006, Cray XMt, 2006 and Cray CX1, 2008. It is possible that some of these models have been used by the CSEC and are in use today.
-note: Distinctions should be made between Cray Research, Inc (acquired by SGI) and Cray Computer (a different company founded by Seymour Cray after he left Cray Research.

IT Security

Formerly known as communications security
Communications security
Communications security is the discipline of preventing unauthorized interceptors from accessing telecommunications in an intelligible form, while still delivering content to the intended recipients. In the United States Department of Defense culture, it is often referred to by the abbreviation...

 (COMSEC), the CSEC’s IT Security Program grew out of a need to protect sensitive information transmitted by various agencies of the government, especially the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), Canada Border Services Agency
Canada Border Services Agency
The Canada Border Services Agency is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border enforcement, immigration enforcement and customs services....

 (CBSA), DND, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

 (RCMP). As a result of this critical and urgent need, the IT Security program’s strategic stance has made possible a shift to that of a predictive nature allowing the program to provide relevant knowledge based upon sound practices and forward looking solutions.

The CSEC’s IT Security Program has earned highly valued global respect and a reputation of technical excellence. It now extends its expertise past its traditional technical clients to those within the Government of Canada who are responsible for the formulation and implementation of policy and program managers, and is committed to ensuring cyber networks and critical infrastructures are trustworthy and secure. CSEC also conducts research and development on behalf of the Government of Canada in fields related to communications security.

Mandate

In December 2001 the Canadian government passed omnibus bill C-36
Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act
The Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by the Liberal government of Canada in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001, as Bill C-36. The "omnibus" bill extends the powers of government and institutions within the Canadian...

 into law as the Anti-terrorism Act
Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act
The Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by the Liberal government of Canada in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001, as Bill C-36. The "omnibus" bill extends the powers of government and institutions within the Canadian...

. The new act amended portions of the National Defence Act
National Defence Act
The National Defence Act is the primary enabling legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military....

 and officially recognized CSEC's three-part mandate:
  • To acquire and use information from the global information infrastructure for the purpose of providing foreign intelligence, in accordance with Government of Canada intelligence priorities.
  • To provide advice, guidance and services to help ensure the protection of electronic information and of information infrastructures of importance to the Government of Canada.
  • To provide technical and operational assistance to federal law enforcement and security agencies in the performance of their lawful duties.


The Anti-Terrorism Act also strengthened CSEC's capacity to engage in the war on terrorism by providing needed authorities to fulfill its mandate.

CSEC is forbidden, by law, to intercept domestic communications. When intercepting communications between a domestic and foreign source, the domestic communications are destroyed or otherwise ignored (however, after the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

 on the United States, CSEC's powers expanded to allow the interception of foreign communications that begin or end in Canada, as long as the other party is outside the border and ministerial authorization is issued specifically for this case and purpose). CSEC is bound by all Canadian laws, including the Criminal Code of Canada
Criminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...

, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...

, and the Privacy Act
Privacy Act 1982
The Privacy Act is Canadian federal legislation that came into effect on July 1, 1983. The act sets out rules for how institutions of the federal government must deal with personal information of individuals...

.

Commissioner

The Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner (OCSEC) was created on June 19, 1996, to review CSE's activities for compliance with the applicable legislation, accept and investigate complaints regarding the lawfulness of the agency's activities, and to perform special duties under the 'Public Interest Defence' clause of the Security of Information Act
Security of Information Act
In Canada, the Security of Information Act is part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act which received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001 and came into effect on December 24, 2001. This Act renamed and replaced Official Secrets Act 1981...

. Once a year, the Commissioner provides a public report on his activities and findings to Parliament, through the Minister of National Defence.

As of 2010, there have been five Commissioners:
  • the Honourable Claude Bisson
    Claude Bisson
    Claude Bisson, OC is a retired Canadian Judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal and a former Communications Security Establishment Commissioner....

    , (1996–2003)
  • the Right Honourable Antonio Lamer
    Antonio Lamer
    Joseph Antonio Charles Lamer, PC, CC, CD was a Canadian lawyer, jurist and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.-Personal life:...

    , (2003–2006)
  • the Honourable Charles Gonthier
    Charles Gonthier
    Charles Doherty Gonthier, was a Puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Canada from February 1, 1989 to August 1, 2003. He was replaced by Morris Fish.-Early life:...

    , (2006–2009)
  • the Honourable Peter Cory, appointed 14 December 2009.
  • the Honourable Robert Décary
    Robert Décary
    Robert Décary is a former judge on the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal.-References:...

    , appointed 18 June 2010.

New Facilities

With the rapid expansion in the number of CSEC personnel since the 9/11 attack in the US, the existing CSEC facilities are no longer sufficiently large. A new C$880 million, 72,000 sq. m. facility is being built in SE Ottawa, immediately west of the headquarters building for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...

. Construction began in early 2011 and it is expected that it will be completed in 2015. Plans indicate that there will be a secure physical connection between the two buildings allowing for the passage of personnel between them.

Communications data

In Proceedings of the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence|Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, CSE Chief John Adams, indicated that the CSE is collecting communications data
Communications data
Communications data concerns information about communication.Communications data is a part of a message that should be distinguished from the content of the message...

 when he suggested that the legislation was not perfect in regard to interception of information relating to the "envelope".

ECHELON

Under the 1948 UKUSA agreement, CSEC's intelligence is shared with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

 (NSA), the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Government Communications Headquarters
Government Communications Headquarters
The Government Communications Headquarters is a British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the UK government and armed forces...

 (GCHQ), the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Defence Signals Directorate
Defence Signals Directorate
Defence Signals Directorate is an Australian government intelligence agency responsible for signals intelligence and information security .-Overview:According to its website, DSD has two principal functions:...

 (DSD) and New Zealand's
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 Government Communications Security Bureau
Government Communications Security Bureau
The Government Communications Security Bureau is an intelligence agency of the New Zealand government.The mission statement is given as:To contribute to the national security of New Zealand through:...

 (GCSB). Along with these services from the United States, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, CSEC is believed to form the ECHELON
ECHELON
ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA Security Agreement...

 system. Its capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax and data traffic. The intercepted data, or "dictionaries" are "reported linked together through a high-powered array of computers known as ‘Platform’.

Controversies

There has been some criticism over the years of CSEC.

A former employee of the organization, Mike Frost, claimed in a 1994 book, Spyworld, that the agency eavesdropped on Margaret Trudeau
Margaret Trudeau
Margaret Joan Sinclair Trudeau Kemper is the former wife of the late Pierre Trudeau, the 15th Prime Minister of Canada.-Early years and marriage:...

 to find out if she smoked marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

 and that CSEC monitored two of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 dissenting cabinet ministers in London on behalf of the UK's secret service.

In 1996, it was suggested that CSEC had monitored all communications between National Defence Headquarters and Somalia, and were withholding information from the Somalia Inquiry
Somalia Affair
The Somalia Affair was a 1993 military scandal later dubbed "Canada's national shame". It peaked with the brutal beating death of a Somali teenager at the hands of two Canadian soldiers participating in humanitarian efforts in Somalia. The crime, documented by grisly photos, shocked the Canadian...

 into the killing of two unarmed Somalis by Canadian soldiers.

In 2006, CTV Montreal
CFCF-TV
CFCF-DT is a CTV-owned and operated station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...

’s program On Your Side conducted a three-part documentary on CSEC naming it “Canada’s most secretive spy agency” and that “this ultra-secret agency has now become very powerful”, conducting unlawful surveillance by monitoring phone calls, e-mails, chat groups, radio, microwave, and satellite.

In 2007, former Ontario lieutenant-governor, James Bartleman, testified at the Air India Inquiry on May 3 that he saw a CSEC communications intercept warning of the June 22, 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...

 before it occurred. Two former CSEC employees, Bill Sheahan (CSEC Client Relations Officer) and Pierre LaCompte (CSEC Liaison Officer), have since testified that no CSEC report was ever produced.

See also

  • CFS Leitrim
    CFS Leitrim
    Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, also referred to as CFS Leitrim, is an important Canadian Forces Station located in the neighbourhood of Leitrim near Ottawa, Ontario...

  • Canadian Forces
    Canadian Forces
    The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...

     Information Management Group
  • ECHELON
    ECHELON
    ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA Security Agreement...

  • Joint Task Force 2
    Joint Task Force 2
    Joint Task Force 2 is an elite Special Operations Force of the Canadian Armed Forces primarily tasked with counter-terrorism operations...

  • Canadian Security Intelligence Service
    Canadian Security Intelligence Service
    The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...

     (CSIS)
  • Royal Canadian Mounted Police
    Royal Canadian Mounted Police
    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

     (RCMP)
  • RCMP Security Service
    RCMP Security Service
    The RCMP Security Service is the former branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which had responsibilities of domestic intelligence and security for Canada...

  • Security clearances
  • Security of Information Act
    Security of Information Act
    In Canada, the Security of Information Act is part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act which received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001 and came into effect on December 24, 2001. This Act renamed and replaced Official Secrets Act 1981...

  • Treasury Board
    Treasury Board
    The Treasury Board is the Government of Canada's only statutory Cabinet committee and is responsible for the federal civil service much of the operation of the Canadian government. Among its specific duties are negotiating labour agreements with the public service unions and serving as Comptroller...

  • Badge of the Communications Security Establishment
    Badge of the Communications Security Establishment
    -History:In response to a request from the Chief of CSE, a warrant authorizing the creation of a badge was signed by the Deputy Herald Chancellor of the Canadian Heraldic Authority , on January 26th, 1994...

  • Cray
    Cray
    Cray Inc. is an American supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray. Seymour Cray went on to form the spin-off Cray Computer Corporation , in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1995,...

  • List of intelligence agencies
  • National Security Agency
    National Security Agency
    The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

     (US)
  • GCHQ (UK)
  • FAPSI
    FAPSI
    FAPSI or Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information was a Russian government agency, which was responsible for signal intelligence and security of governmental communications...

    (Russia)

External links


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