Article content continued

But the watchdog Office of the Commissioner of the Communications Security Establishment notes CSE intercepted 342 private communications in 2014-15, compared to just 13 for the previous year.

By law, CSE can only target communications of foreign entities outside Canada. If one end of that communication is in Canada, making it a “private communication,” it requires a written authorization from the minister of national defence, responsible for the CSE, and only if it is essential for “international affairs, defence or security.”

There also must be “satisfactory measures” to protect the privacy of any Canadian citizens, including permanent residents and corporations, inadvertently caught up in the intercept. Otherwise, the CSE is not allowed to target Canadians at home or abroad.

Commissioner Jean-Pierre Plouffe, a retired Quebec superior court judge, reports he is satisfied all the intercepts of Canadians’ communications last year were unintentional, essential to international affairs, defence or security, backed by ministerial authorizations and legal.

There’s always been this concern about how much do our careful privacy laws get sidestepped by having allies do this stuff

But Plouffe’s explanation for the 26-fold jump is not so straightforward: “This was a consequence of the technical characteristics of a particular communications technology and of the manner in which private communications are counted,” he writes.