Foundational Concepts

• Jurisdiction: Canada
• Author: Craig Forcese
• Pages: 1-28

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Foundational Concepts

I. OBJECTIVES

is short book is about the democratic regulation of Canada’s security

and intelligence agencies at the federal level. It is intended as a primer

or guidebook, both for those involved in Canada’s national security

system and for those with an interest in it.

I wrote this book to overcome a key obstacle that I believe impedes

broader understanding of this topic: those working in (and study-

ing) components of Canada’s national security system usually do not

approach it as a system. Instead, they often populate silos, from which

vantage point broader patterns and principles may be invisible. is

reality may make it hard to understand the overarching principles

and objectives of Canada’s national security system, especially those

relating to democratic regulation. A failure to understand the “why” of

this democratic regulation makes it dicult to approach questions of

“how” in a principled manner. e result is that an understanding of

the rationale for design choices may fade with time, and transactional

approaches to national security accountability done without under-

standing broader principles may end up hollowing out democratic

regulation.

 | Fundamentals of National Security Accountability in Canada

Such a development would be regrettable. Democratic regulation

is not a pious principle, amounting to an inconvenience shackling

security services. Done properly, it is instead a mechanism for nudg-

ing progressive improvement in a sector often insulated from more

conventional performance pressures. is book, therefore, stems from

my commitment to the concept of democratic regulation of security

services as a key force multiplier in national security.

I have structured this book into two parts. In the rst, comprising

chapters  and , I propose six “values” that underlie Canada’s national

security system and inform (or should inform) both the conduct of

security service activities and the approach taken by bodies conducting

democratic regulation of them. I believe these values to be supported

both by the structure of Canada’s laws and by the vision of those who

prompted, framed, debated, and then decided them. In proposing

these values, I also rely on positions articulated by observers in like-

minded democratic states — especially the United Kingdom and United

States — concerning the national security systems in their own countries.

ese six values should guide any evaluation of Canada’s national secur-

ity system and always be front of mind in the design and operation of it.

In the rest of the book, I discuss how democratic regulation of the

security services operates in Canada, focusing on executive oversight,

judicial and quasi-judicial control and scrutiny, specialized national

security review, and then conclude with other forms of scrutiny. ese

chapters are not simply a litany of institutions and mandates. I have

tried to articulate the background to these functions and outline con-

siderations properly informing their design and conduct, linked back

to the principles addressed in the rst part of the book.

Before embarking on these topics, however, I must dene relevant

terms and their application to Canada. I must also oer a concise

history of democratic regulation of national security in Canada. ese

contextual discussions reect the fact that there can be no universal

theory of national security accountability, extracted from the highly

variable practices of states. As Peter Gill argues, “[e]ven a cursory

1 Peter Gill, “Of Intelligence Oversight and the Challenge of Surveillance Corporatism”

(2020) 35:7 Intelligence and National Security 970 at 970. See also David Omand &

Mark Phythian, Principled Spying: The Ethics of Secret Intelligence (Washington, DC: