National Security

These subcategories reflect a review of major themes in story content. National Security includes: Security Intelligence, Terrorism, CSIS, National Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Search & Rescue, Helicopters, Military Veterans, Border Control, Passports

People like you help fund FIPA research like this.

You help us stay independent and keep these resources available to everyone. Every contribution – big, small, one-time, or recurring – makes a difference.

Click here to support this work

National Security

Author:

Date of Publication:

Media Outlet:

wdt_ID	Details	Author	Date of Publication	Media Outlet	Title	Category Name	Story summary
1	More details	Peter Calamai	14/03/1984	Southam News	Eye kept on keepers of the Bomb	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	In Canada, most information about nuclear weapons safety has been classified as restricted or secret. But documents recently obtained by researcher Ken Rubin under the ATI Act confirm the Canadian system is patterned directly on the U.S., adopting identical codewords and procedures. In the U.S., the identical reliability program has major problems: one of every 20 military personnel initially certified for access to nuclear weapons was later removed from the program because of drinking, drug abuse, negligence, illegal or aberrant behavior.
2	More details	Andrew McIntosh		Globe and Mail	{*} Ottawa warned of airports' vulnerability in 1982	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Ottawa was warned in 1982 that Canadian airports were vulnerable to terrorist sabotage but did not improve security measures until after the destruction of an Air-India jet and an explosion in Tokyo in 1985, internal Transport Canada records reveal. A 1982 threat-assessment report prepared by the department's civil aviation security branch cautioned that risks of a terrorist incident involving a Canadian airport had increased substantially since 1980. Intelligence sources, including the RCMP, Interpol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, advised the department that sabotage would be "a primary threat for the future." The study was among 350 pages of airport security records obtained by The Globe under the ATIA.
3	More details	Iain Hunter	24/09/1987	Ottawa Citizen	Second informant's story discounted by Kelleher	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Solicitor General James Kelleher said that a Vancouver informant who warned security service agents and the RCMP about an impending bomb attack on an Air-India jet in September 1984, didn't tell them anything new…. Liberal MP John Nunziata read from a report describing a "severely heightened threat" that existed against Air-India prior to the bombing of Flight 182. The document, heavily censored, said this threat resulted in the X-raying of checked baggage on Air-India flights leaving Canada as well as security measures in place for all international flights to prevent weapons and bombs being carried aboard in hand luggage. It was prepared, not by the cabinet committee, but the Interdepartmental Committee on Security and Intelligence - a committee of deputy ministers. Nunziata said the censored document was obtained through the ATIA by a person he refused to identify.
4	More details	Jeff Sallot	29/01/1988	Globe and Mail	Letter says report demoralized service CSIS saw review panel as threat	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Relations between the federal security oversight committee and T. D'Arcy Finn, the former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, were so strained last summer that Finn complained privately that the committee might be jeopardizing national security. Finn, who resigned under pressure from the government, wrote to Ronald Atkey, chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, to complain about "distorted reality . . . half-truths and outright errors and misinterpretations" in the committee's annual report to Parliament. Finn wrote that the report created in the minds of some a false image of CSIS as a "venomously dangerous reptile." Both Finn and Atkey were flabbergasted that the private letter had been made public. The Toronto Star obtained it from CSIS under the ATIA.
5	More details	Ken MacQueen	22/04/1988	Montreal Gazette	Spy agency finds site for permanent headquarters	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	After four futile years of searching the Ottawa area, senior officials at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have found a potential site for a permanent headquarters, federal documents show. A memo was circulated to CSIS staff last November claiming that the service had a "firm interest" in a building and land that "could satisfy our space needs for many years to come." The memo - which has the location of the site blocked out - was obtained under the ATIA. It is dated less than a month after a top-level study of the security service was submitted to Solicitor General James Kelleher warning that there was an urgent need for a new headquarters. The service's temporary headquarters - the East Memorial Building on Wellington St. in downtown Ottawa - is being extensively renovated
6	More details	Stephen Bindman	12/09/1989	Ottawa Citizen	{*} Cabinet adopts no-deal terrorism policy; Government wants to send a message to terrorists that Canada won't be staging ground for violence	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Canada has formally adopted a policy of not making concessions to terrorists. Southam News has learned the cabinet recently approved a detailed national counter-terrorism plan after an internal government task force warned the country's ability to respond to a terrorist incident was in disarray. The senior official on the scene, however, has some latitude in dealing with minor demands of a terrorist to try to resolve an incident. The plan, approved in principle by the cabinet, spells out the roles and responsibilities of various government departments and agencies, and also details procedures to be followed in the event of a terrorist threat or incident. A heavily-censored copy of it was obtained by Southam News under the ATIA
7	More details	David Vienneau	21/09/1989	Toronto Star	Consider spying on U.S., Canada told	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	If Canada were to put spies abroad, the most likely target for their covert activities would be the United States, a paper prepared for the Security Intelligence Review Committee says. The 1988 paper notes the fierce international competition for foreign markets, and the ability of the U.S. to spy on our business and high-tech firms while we cannot spy on theirs. "To the extent that covert sources of intelligence and influence are an asset in gaining access to markets and technologies and in international bargaining, Canada will be at a disadvantage with its major trading partners," the paper says. "Implementation of the free trade agreement with the United States should only heighten this concern." It was obtained by The Star under the ATIA. CSIS, responsible for countering threats to the security of Canada, has no mandate to operate outside the country's borders.
8	More details	Mark Kennedy	02/11/1989	Ottawa Citizen	{*} New questions in Gander crash; Documents suggest Bouchard knew	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Records cast doubt on Transport Minister Benoit Bouchard's claim he was unaware of faults in a controversial report on the Gander air crash. The March 2 document, one of several obtained by the Citizen through the ATIA, was prepared as a briefing note for Bouchard one week before he gave his blessing to an investigation of the 1985 air disaster. It revealed that the department had conducted an internal review of the Gander probe by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board. The review, said the briefing notes, found that the board's key conclusion - that ice-encrusted wings caused the crash - could not be substantiated. On March 8, Bouchard accepted the majority report and its wing-icing conclusion. On March 15, the Citizen revealed the critical conclusions of the classified departmental review after obtaining a leaked copy of its report.
9	More details	Julian Beltrame	14/03/1990	Ottawa Citizen	Spies in sky over East Coast? Government proposes satellites to monitor overfishing	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Ottawa is exploring ways of using satellite and electronic surveillance technology to watch its East Coast fishermen. If the proposals in documents are approved, they could cast a net 200 miles off Canada's East Coast. Because of the high levels of overfishing off the coast, "an obvious increase in surveillance capability is required," they argue. One proposal is for "electronic licensing," by which transponders are put on fishing boats. The transponders, able to send location and identify the vessel, would signal constantly or on cue to a satellite, shore base or to patrol boats and planes. Another proposal, which would cost $10,000 to $20,000 per boat, would place "black boxes" incorporating transponders with an onboard computer fishermen would use to report daily catches.
10	More details	Peter Moon	28/05/1991	Globe and Mail	Worker security at Canada's least- known spy agency is strict, with video monitors and strict rules about shop-and pillow-talk	SECURITY - INTELLIGENCE, TERRORISM, CSIS	Canada’s least-known spy agency is so security-conscious that it has rules governing even the sex lives of its employees.... The headquarters of the CSE, which is part of the Department of National Defence, are in a building on Heron Road in central Ottawa, a short walk from Carleton University. A $38-million extension is in the final stages of completion. The addition, according to a briefing note for the Defence Minister obtained by The Globe under the ATIA, "will allow CSE to repatriate staff from space elsewhere in the city to Confederation Heights and accommodate an increase in data-processing capability which has occurred in the course of recent years."
		Author	Date of Publication	Media Outlet