The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was founded by an act of the Canadian Parliament, Bill C-157, "an Act to Establish the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)" to be a replacement for the floundering Royal Canadian Mounted Police Security Service. The RCMP, which is Canada's federal police service, was at one time also responsible for intelligence duties.
CSIS's mission statement is as follows: "The people of CSIS are dedicated to the protection of Canada's national security interests and the safety of Canadians." As per this statement, CSIS does not have an active foreign intelligence department, but solely acts as a kind of "internal security" to protect Canada from internal and external threats. This means CSIS officers and surveillance personnel do not officially work outside of Canada's borders.
Operational Programs
Some of the tasks included in this mission, known as "Operational Programs," include:
- Counter-terrorism
- Counter-proliferation — preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction
- Counter-intelligence
- Security screening
- Research, Analysis and Production — creating strategy for the implementation of the Operational Programs
- Environmental scanning — monitoring the global flow of information (see also: Echelon)
- Facing Technological Challenges
Criticism
CSIS has come under repeated criticism for some highly publicized failures, such as the seeming fumbling of the investigation into the 1985 Air India bombing and the theft of classified documents from the car of a CSIS agent at a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game.