Parliamentary Committee Notes: Building Intelligence Investigations

Date: June 16, 2023

Branch/Agency: CSIS

Proposed Response:

When CSIS collects any piece of intelligence, it is trying to build a threat picture, and therefore every piece of intelligence is assessed on its own merit.
Though in some cases, CSIS has very solid sources that provide information, in some cases, they may not. CSIS always works to corroborate that information in order to build a better picture.
The Service’s threshold to investigate is based on reasonable grounds to suspect. Given that threshold, while an investigation is developing, the Service may have information that helps to build the picture, but doesn’t yet reach a threshold of reasonable grounds to believe.
It is critical that the information CSIS shares with partners like the RCMP and decision-makers like myself, is properly assessed and that as much of the intelligence picture is understood as possible.
The decision to share information is case-by-case, and depends on the seriousness of the threat, and the amount of corroborated information that supports CSIS’ assessment of the threat.
While CSIS and the RCMP work closely together on threats to national security, intelligence requires the need for protection of sources and sensitive information.
Given this need to protect, all collaboration works on a need to know basis, and where a need to know exists, CSIS readily shares that information with the RCMP.

The IMU notes were originally designed in order to inform Public Safety and PCO.
They are not normally disseminated to the RCMP.
Recently CSIS has broadened dissemination on a case by case basis when a need to know has been determined.
If there is something within a document that the RCMP need to know, then it is shared.