The federal government is set to table a wide-ranging bill to beef up oversight of all national security agencies, restrict some of the existing powers of Canada's spy agency, and impose independent review of the domestic activities of the country's electronic surveillance organization, sources said.

The legislation will be unveiled on Tuesday by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, fulfilling the Liberal Party's promise to modify key elements of the former Conservative government's 2015 Anti-Terrorism Act.

In addition to tabling the legislation, the government will announce it is seeking further input on two controversial issues that affect the operations of law-enforcement authorities in Canada, a senior federal official said.

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First off, the government will be consulting Canadians on the best way to legislate Ottawa's objection to the acquisition of foreign intelligence obtained through torture. There are a number of ministerial directives and rulings that prevent the use of this type of information, but the government will be proposing draft language to further clarify its position.

"The goal will be to have a legislative framework that respects the Convention Against Torture and our fundamental values," a senior federal official said.

Secondly, the government will be launching consultations on the best way to facilitate the introduction of top-secret evidence in national-security trials while protecting the identity of its source, whether it comes from domestic or foreign intelligence agencies.

"Oftentimes, we have evidence but we can't use it [in court]. This is an issue on which we want to consult more widely because we know there is a problem, but the solutions aren't always obvious," the official said.

The federal government's national-security package is long awaited and comes after extensive consultations with the public at large and national-security experts. The legislation is expected to impose new limits on the powers of Canada's national-security agencies, which were beefed up by the Conservatives with their controversial legislation known as Bill C-51.

The Liberals endorsed the bill in Opposition, while promising to amend it if they formed government. The bill has grown to include new elements over time, said a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity before the tabling of the legislation.

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"We have decided to go further than simply amending C-51 and to be more ambitious with regards to what is in the legislation," the official said.

In terms of oversight, the government will provide new powers to the watchdogs who supervise the day-to-day activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and other agencies involved in national security.

"They all work in silos as it stands and they often face legal challenges in terms of sharing information between themselves … even when they are working on similar issues. That is one of the issues that we will try to solve with the new legislation," a federal official said.

The government will also move forward on its promise to impose greater scrutiny of CSE's domestic activities. As it stands, CSE requires ministerial authorization to conduct electronic surveillance operations at home, but would need to go through "an independent individual" under the new legislation. Still, it remains to be seen if the move will go as far as "requiring a warrant to engage in the surveillance of Canadians" as promised in 2015.

In relation to contentious elements of the 2015 Anti-Terrorism Act, the Liberals are expected to impose new limits on CSIS's ability to "disrupt" security threats and to amend the definition of "terrorist propaganda" in the legislation.

Federal officials said the government will be open to a number of amendments as the legislation is studied by the public-safety committee of the House and the Senate committee on national security.

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"This will not be a take-it-or-leave-it proposal as it was under the previous government," a Liberal official said. "We will be very open to any new ideas to improve the legislation. We're talking about fundamental rights and national security here, so we will not be pretending that we have all of the answers."