After more than a decade of delay and second thoughts, Canada is on the verge of getting a committee of MPs and senators that can review sensitive intelligence and national security operations — but the enabling legislation still has one final hurdle to clear. Creating the review committee was a key promise made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the election, as part of a response to the expansion of national security powers under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government known as Bill C-51. Legislation to create a parliamentary review of national security agencies had first been tabled in the final days of Paul Martin’s Liberal government, but it didn’t get passed before its election defeat in 2006. Harper’s government then declined to create the committee, in part because it didn’t trust MPs to keep national security information secret. Professors Craig Forcese and Kent Roach, who have authored papers on Canadian national security reform, urged senators to change a clause that bars the committee from getting information on an active police investigation.

Source: National Post June 13, 2017 00:11 UTC