CSIS failed to report unlawful activity to federal government

Canada's domestic intelligence agency has failed to report employees' potentially unlawful activity and Charter violations to federal authorities, according to a newly released watchdog report.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service admitted to 22 instances of "non-compliance" with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 2023-24, but none were formally reported to the federal public safety minister — a legal requirement.

The revelation comes from the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), which warned in a top-secret report released this week that the situation "may constitute a non-compliance with the law."

"Reporting unlawful activity to the minister is a fundamental accountability mechanism in the CSIS Act," NSIRA's 2024 annual report stated.

While CSIS did provide a summary to the minister in a classified report, NSIRA said the listing "does not provide sufficient detail to allow the minister to understand the context of the unlawful activity or to assess its severity."

Michael Nesbitt, an associate dean at the University of Calgary's law school who researches national security law, said the gap undermines a key justification for CSIS's powers. "What we have with CSIS is a series of new authorities and powers, which are significant and can be very intrusive. The justification for continuing to give those sorts of powers to CSIS was the accountability and some transparency mechanisms. In this case, that seems to have collapsed."

For years, CSIS interpreted the reporting requirement narrowly, believing it only applied to "prosecutable offences." Under that standard, the agency reported only three instances of potentially unlawful activity to the minister since 2017.

In 2025, the current CSIS director, Daniel Rogers, approved a new memorandum stating the agency should inform the government whenever unlawful activity is believed to have occurred, even without a prosecutable threshold. NSIRA said it will continue monitoring to ensure the change is actually implemented.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree's office did not answer how many times CSIS has reported unlawful activity since Rogers issued his directive, but released a statement emphasizing the importance of transparency: "Robust, timely, and transparent reporting is essential to ensuring that Canada's national security agencies operate in full compliance with the law and respect the rights and freedoms of Canadians."

The gap in reporting raises questions about what Canadian agencies consider unlawful and how much latitude they allow themselves in operations.