VANCOUVER - The B.C. Civil Liberties Association announced Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit in the B.C. Supreme Court against Canada’s electronic surveillance agency, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, saying that its broad and unchecked surveillance of Canadians is unconstitutional.

“The BCCLA’s lawsuit claims that the Communications Security Establishment Canada otherwise known as CSEC is engaged in illegal surveillance of Canadians,” Caily DiPuma, staff lawyer for the BCCLA told a press conference in Vancouver.

The BCCLA is calling for judicial control over CSEC’s surveillance practices, alleging the agency has spied on Canadians.

“Judicial control is constitutionally mandated in Canada … this isn’t open to debate,” said David Martin, a lawyer for the BCCLA.

The lawsuit concerns both the interception of communications between Canadians and people outside the country and the collection of metadata that can deliver such information as phone calls, the location of cellphones, websites visited and other data.

CSEC is forbidden from intentionally collecting or analyzing information from Canadian citizens, whether they are in Canada or abroad. However, the National Defence Act allows the defence minister to give CSEC written ministerial authorization to unintentionally intercept private communications while collecting foreign-signals intelligence.

“Right now CSEC can read Canadian emails, intercept text messages and listen to their phone conversations when they are communicating with someone outside the country,” said DiPuma. “Once the minister issues his secret authorization CSEC can legally eavesdrop on Canadians.”

The BCCLA’s lawyers said very little is known about CSEC’s operations and the rules it follows, and the group hopes the lawsuit will force the federal government to finally tell the public what the agency is up to.

No federal government department or agency was willing to discuss the lawsuit or the extent of CSEC’s spying activities on Tuesday. The federal departments of Justice and National Defence each declined to comment, directing calls about the lawsuit to CSEC.

CSEC, in turn, declined to provide anyone to interview or to answer specific questions about the case or the agency’s electronic surveillance programs. The agency provided a brief, single-sentence statement: “Under the law, this organization is prohibited from targeting Canadians.’’

Joe Arvay, lawyer for the BCCLA, told reporters that when there are “no effective checks on the spy, it is obvious the spy will engage in espionage,” going far beyond what would be permitted by a system that requires judicial authorization.

He said as well as violating Canadians’ reasonable expectation of privacy, such a regime also constitutes a serious infringement of Canadians’ freedom of expression.

“Such untrammelled spying will cause Canadians to censure themselves on matters that are perfectly legal, but involve the personal, business, political or intimate details of one’s life for fear that such details will be intercepted by the spy,” he said.

The BCCLA was joined by OpenMedia.ca, a grassroots Vancouver advocacy group that has launched an online campaign, urging supporters to pledge their support for the BCCLA lawsuit.

“I stand with the BCCLA, because unlawful spying violates the rights of everyone in Canada and it must be stopped,” the pledge reads. “I uphold the constitutional right of all Canadian residents to be free from unlawful spying and intrusion by government entities. Canadians need transparent and properly enforced safeguards to secure their privacy rights.”

gshaw@vancouversun.com

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