CSIS has little power under its current mandate to prevent recruitment by radical groups such as ISIS, hampering its battle to root out terrorism, security experts say.
“It’s not illegal to leave the country,” said MacEwan University professor Jean Christophe Boucher. “It’s not illegal to pay somebody else’s plane ticket, it’s not illegal under certain conditions to convince somebody to go abroad.”
This week CBC News revealed several cases of Canadian women who have joined ISIS,
In a case linked to Edmonton, a woman said she’s furious her Canadian sister left last summer for the Islamic State, under the watch of CSIS.
“I don’t understand why they didn’t stop her at the airport in Toronto. She told me in a conversation that they followed her all along every step of the trip,” she said.
She also questioned why the agency didn’t tell her family what they knew, so they could stop her, and why no steps were taken to arrest or detain the Edmonton woman she believes radicalized and paid for her plane ticket.
“I would like her to be locked up, so that she can’t cause any more families to go through what I’m going through with my family.”
CSIS: ‘No mandate to intervene’
CSIS won’t comment on specific investigations. But in a statement, CSIS said it can only collect and analyze information and doesn’t have the “mandate to intervene to prevent terror plots from developing.”
Experts agree, pointing that out CSIS was set up following the 1981 landmark McDonald inquiry into the RCMP, which recommended separating criminal and security intelligence.
They also say many of the allegations in the Edmonton-connected case are not against the law.
As long as people don’t encourage others to do something illegal, their rights are protected by the charter, he said.
“There is a sufficiently strong and high threshold on how and when you can detain people on suspicion.
“Some people have weird ideas but we don’t arrest them and we don’t block them from going abroad. And here, I think, CSIS’s room for manoeuvre was really constrained by the kind of laws that apply to every Canadian. And as long as you don’t do anything illegal, then CSIS nor the RCMP nor local police have any capacity to actually arrest and detain you. In this case, it’s clear the young woman did nothing specifically illegal, except wanting to join that group.”
Christian Leuprecht, associate dean with the Royal Military College of Canada, said the current mandate of CSIS by and large does not allow it to communicate with people who are not direct party to the investigation.
“Hence, CSIS is prevented from actually talking to the parents about what they believe they might be observing,” he said.
He said Bill C-51, the Conservative government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation, soon to be examined by a parliamentary committee, would give the agency disruptive powers.
“CSIS would be able to intervene in financial, operational or personnel matters in order to prevent, for instance, individuals from going abroad. Including, for instance, the power to cancel plane tickets that have been booked. But the challenge is CSIS currently does not have those powers.”
The legislation would also make the advocacy and promotion of terrorism an offense, he said.
The NDP has said Bill C-51 lacks oversight mechanisms, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made the case that there are checks and balances in place.
Calgary Imam Abdi Hersy, who has been urging young Muslims not to join ISIS, warned the legislation will further alienate some Muslim youth and make his job harder.
Those disaffected young people may actually be more motivated to leave the country if Bill C-51 is enacted, he said.
Hersy and the federal opposition say the government needs to focus on prevention long before youth become radicalized.
