Chapter 4: Government Response
Special Report on the Lawful Access to Communications by Security and Intelligence Organizations

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Policy Leads and Governance

130. The Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Justice are accountable to Parliament for lawful access. They are advised by the departments of Public Safety and Justice. The primary operational departments are CSIS and the RCMP. In the time period under review, several successive Cabinet Committees could have served as forums to discuss lawful access policy. Footnote 300 According to the Minister of Public Safety, the Cabinet Committee on Global Affairs and Public Security is the more likely venue for a discussion on lawful access policy than the newly created National Security Council, which first met in October 2023.

131. Cabinet deliberations on lawful access policy are supported by the Deputy Ministers’ Committee on National Security (DMNS). The mandate of DMNS is to consider security, defence and foreign policy issues in order to provide coherent, integrated advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet committees. Footnote 301 Normally co-chaired by the National Security and Intelligence Advisor and the Deputy Minister of Public Safety, its members include the deputy heads of CSE, CSIS, the RCMP, Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, and DoJ. Footnote 302

132. Several distinct yet overlapping lawful access issues were contemplated by the government in the period under review. They included:

  • A legal framework for intercept capability for Canadian CSPs;
  • The development of legislation to access BSI, following the Supreme Court decision in R v Spencer;
  • The development of a policy on encryption, including whether to require CSPs and other communications platforms to decrypt communications for investigators;
  • Determining whether the law should require CSPs to retain metadata for a specified period of time; and
  • The negotiation of treaties to enable access to information held by CSPs outside Canada through enhanced multilateral and Canada-U.S. cooperation.
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