Canada gives spy agency new anti-terror powers

Canada's spy agency will be granted new powers today to thwart terror plots in a security overhaul precipitated by twin jihadist attacks three months ago.
The October 20 and 22 attacks in Quebec province and in the capital Ottawa, targeting soldiers and Parliament, revealed gaps in Canadian defenses against terrorism.
In the aftermath of the terror attacks -- the first ever on Canadian soil -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to beef up security, recently giving hints of the changes to come in speeches and public appearances.
The new legislation will contain measures "designed to help authorities stop planned attacks, get threats off our streets, criminalize the promotion of terrorism and prevent terrorists from traveling and recruiting others," he said last week.

The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada's spy service, is widely expected to be granted additional powers to track and detain suspected jihadists, including preventing them from travelling abroad for terror purposes.
The bill would also reportedly criminalize the advocacy or promotion of terrorism.

Until now, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been responsible for investigating and acting on terror threats.
CSIS was created in the early 1980s after an inquiry into RCMP illegal activities and rights abuses recommended a separation of policing and intelligence gathering.
Today, CSIS hands-off cases to the RCMP to investigate and make arrests. The government is expected to argue that Canada must act more quickly to thwart threats to national security.

"We are not under any illusion of the evolving multiple threats that we face," Harper said yesterday.
"It's difficult to predict them all, but we must continually evolve and improve our tools to do everything we can in what are obviously dangerous situations for the Canadian public, situations that we are seeing more and more frequently all over the world.