VANCOUVER—Thousands of document pages will be released Monday that activists allege will support their assertion that Canada’s spy agency was illegally monitoring environmental protesters and sharing that information with both the National Energy Board and oil-and-gas companies.

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) filed its original complaint in February 2014. It alleged that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was monitoring environmental organizations and the Indigenous #IdleNoMore movement as they opposed the now-defunct Northern Gateway pipeline project.

The CSIS Act, which governs the spy agency’s mandate, allows it to investigate threats to Canada. That power does not extend to “lawful advocacy, protest or dissent.”

In 2015, the Security Intelligence Review Committee — the body that oversees CSIS — held hearings on the matter. The committee dismissed the allegations, concluding the spy service did collect some information on the protest groups but only through investigations into threats to resource projects.

In response, the civil liberties association appealed those findings to the Federal Court.

Now, as part of that process, a confidentiality order that had covered documents that were considered by the Security Intelligence Review Committee — including CSIS intelligence reports — has been partially lifted.

The BCCLA said it will release the “heavily redacted” documents in a searchable website called the “Protest Papers.”

“As you’ll see on Monday when the documents are released, there’s over 1,000 pages of information on our organizations. That doesn’t look like things that were accidentally collected in the process of other investigations,” said Sven Biggs, a climate and energy campaigner with the environmental group Stand.Earth.

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“What these papers reveal is that the state and police force are collaborating with private security contractors from the oil industry to suppress groups that work to represent regular Canadians and their concerns about the environment,” he said.

Paul Champs, an Ottawa-based lawyer representing the BCCLA, said they will be challenging the redactions in court.

In its 2014 complaint, the BCCLA alleged CSIS monitored the activities of the environmental organizations Forest.Ethics, now known as Stand.Earth, Sierra Club BC, Dogwood Initiative and Leadnow.ca.

The Security Intelligence Review Committee, however, determined “that CSIS had not acted outside of its mandate and that its activities were reasonable and necessary,” said Tahera Mufti, a CSIS spokesperson, in a statement.

She explained that CSIS investigates threats to Canada’s security and reports them to the government.

“The definition of threats, as outlined in the CSIS Act, specifically excludes lawful protest and dissent,” she said. “As the judicial review of SIRC’s decision of this complaint is currently before the court, I’m not able to provide further comment at this time.”

But Champs said, “We do think CSIS was breaking the law.”

“There are hundreds of intelligence reports on people and groups who were apparently opposed to this pipeline,” he said.

The $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline project, which would have carried oil from outside Edmonton to a terminal on B.C.’s north coast, was initially approved by the Conservative government in 2014.

It faced fierce opposition from environmental groups and some First Nations, who were concerned about the threat the project posed to the Great Bear Rainforest and sensitive coastal environments.

In 2016, federal approval for the project was overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal, which ruled the government had failed to adequately consult First Nations. Its fate was sealed later that year, when it was rejected by the Liberal cabinet due to environmental concerns.

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“Even if CSIS is saying they’re doing it passively ... it’s a serious concern because Canadian citizens should be able to express their views or opinions on any type of issue without fear that they’re going to end up in the databanks of the national intelligence service,” Champs said.

Sarah Kiley, a spokesperson for the National Energy Board, noted the board does conduct security assessments before any public events, including hearings.

“We often work with lead security agencies, such as the RCMP, for example, to conduct this assessment,” she said in a statement. “We look at publicly available information to see if there are any planned events in the area that may impact our hearing.”

A spokesperson for the RCMP, Cpl. Chris Manseau, said that “Demonstrators have a lawful right to protest and companies have a lawful right to complete their mandated work. The RCMP works hard to respect both of these rights and ensure all parties and public are kept safe.”

The fear of ending up in a CSIS databank can have a chilling effect on protest movements, said Champs.

Alexandra Woodsworth, the campaigns manager with the B.C. environmental group Dogwood, said that chill is something her organization has witnessed.

“This is a fundamental piece of what we get to do in Canada, which is participate in a public hearing and public process around a really important decisions,” she said.

The second issue of concern is not knowing when or in what circumstances CSIS may share that information, Champs said.

There are serious concerns that information collected on anti-pipeline protest groups was shared with private oil companies.

“There are a large number of interactions between CSIS and oil companies where CSIS is saying that they are sharing information, what exactly is shared is blacked out in these documents,” Champs said.

“If it was produced to the Security Intellingence Review Committee in the context of this complaint obviously it must have some connection or nexus with these different environmental groups or individuals who were protesting that issue,” he said.

But the pipeline hadn’t even been built, he noted.

“So what kind of information can they be sharing with these oil companies that’s so top secret that they have to black it out?” he said.

Biggs said the documents contain a “real mixed bag” of information, including notes that suggest “agents” infiltrated meetings of anti-pipeline groups to monitor their activities. That included a meeting to help people prepare to testify before the National Energy Board.

“Some of it feels pretty benign, and some of it feels like cloak-and-dagger spy stuff,” he said.

“It’s important to shine a light on this, and I think Canadians should be concerned that groups like ours are under this kind of surveillance.”

With files from the Canadian Press

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