It involved the powers U.S. presidents have to declassify intelligence in situations that call for transparency — and whether such a process could unfold in Canada. Typically, officials can declassify information at the behest of a president, or, in rarer cases, presidents can directly release information themselves. The Treasury Board and the federal Justice Department are responsible for maintaining government security and deciding what information is released or redacted, Wark said. Complicating matters are a suite of outdated laws: the Access to Information Act, the Security of Information Act, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act. “It’s going to raise other questions about why was this information released, why was other information not released,” Sayle said.

Source: thestar April 20, 2023 06:28 UTC