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The Liberals are considering whether Canada’s civilian spy service should be allowed to launch missions aimed at disrupting terrorist plots and other suspected threats to national security.

The power to actively disrupt threats was given to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in June as one of the most dramatic offerings in the Conservatives’ sweeping Bill C-51 security legislation.

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CSIS, created in 1984, replaced the disgraced and disbanded RCMP Security Service after revelations of “dirty tricks” against left-wing radicals and Quebec separatists during the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result, CSIS’s prime mandate had been limited to the collection, analysis and reporting of security intelligence to government and allies.

The additional “threat reduction” mandate the Tories gave it under C-51 has put it on an operational footing much closer to that of the old RCMP Security Service. That worries some people, but government security officials argue that CSIS is a mature, responsible outfit that can be trusted not to abuse the new power.