The Commissioner's Office

Last year, the Commissioner's office was granted its own appropriation from Parliament, strengthening the Commissioner's independence.  As a result of the independence, there were additional administrative requirements.  The Commissioner's office then requested and received additional funding from the Treasury Board to meet these administrative requirements as well as to provide additional operational support for fulfilling the Commissioner's mandate.

Comparative study of CSEC and international partners

During the summer of 2009 the Commissioner's office was fortunate to welcome a master's student from Carleton University who completed a comparative study of publicly available information respecting CSEC and some of its international partners, their authorities, activities and oversight and review mechanisms. The study informs work such as the ongoing classified review of CSEC's foreign intelligence sharing with international partners.

Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) conference

In October 2009 staff of the Commissioner's office participated in the annual CASIS conference, held in Ottawa. The theme of the conference was Terrorism, Cyberspies and a New ‘Cold' War: Emerging Challenges for Security and Intelligence. The conference attracted many leading experts, scholars, policy makers, practitioners and academics from within Canada and internationally. Lectures and panels provided new perspectives on the ever broadening challenges facing the security and intelligence community.

International Intelligence Review Agencies Conference (IIRAC)

In March 2010, the Executive Director of the Commissioner's office attended the IIRAC in Sydney, Australia, leading a discussion on effective review, with a description of the Commissioner's office's approach in areas such as staff recruitment and development, review targeting and plans, and performance measurement and indicators.

The objectives of the bi-annual IIRAC are to share ideas and best practices and build capacity in the review and oversight functions of participating organizations. Participants are from countries that share basic principles of rule of law and democratic control over security and intelligence agencies. Participating organizations represent many different models of review and oversight, adding to the richness of exchanges of information and experience.