Ian Holloway appointed to Security Intelligence Review Committee

On the day his government proposed new powers for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Stephen Harperalso moved to fill one of two vacancieson the spy service's oversight body.

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The appointmentof Ian Holloway, the current dean of the law school at the University of Calgary, to the Security Intelligence Review Committee was announced by press release Friday morning.

The appointment stillleaves one vacancy on the five-member board.

Holloway has a long background in both academia and private practice. He also served for 26yearsin the Royal Canadian Navy as well as the RoyalAustralian Navy. A news release from the prime minister's office touts his "deep knowledge of security issues" as a result of his military service here and abroad.

Established in 1984 to serve as a watchdog for the Canadian spy service, SIRC is intended to provide an independent external review of CSIS's activities. It examines complaints by individuals and reports by ministers relating to national security.

Oversight concerns

Critics have accused the Harper government of not making CSIS oversight a priority.

"Gaps in the oversight regime were identified long ago, notably by Justice OConnor in the report he made at the conclusion of the Arar Inquiry," said Canada's privacy commissioner, Daniel Therrien, in a statement Friday that expressed his concerns about the new anti-terrorism legislation.

"Extending the jurisdiction of oversight bodies would be an important step towards the greater transparency that Canadians expect."

The Harper government eliminated the inspector generaloffice atCSIS which served as an internal watchdog and transferred those responsibilities to SIRC in 2012, saving almost $1 million annually as part of government-wide austerity measures.

The inspector general's final few annual reports had criticized CSIS for an increasing number of errors.

A Liberal motion to establish a parliamentary committee to monitor Canada'snational security agenciesfailed to pass in the House of Commons a year ago.Canada is the only country in the "Five Eyes"intelligence network which includes Australia, NewZealand, the United Kingdom and the United States not to have some kind of proactive parliamentary oversight for its spy service.

Meanwhile, vacancies at SIRC went unfilled for months.

"If you're going to have expanded powers for any of these agencies, there should be a commensurate oversight," NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar told reporters Friday. "What we see right now with CSIS, for instance, the oversight body doesn't actually have a full complement of people appointed to oversee them."

But past appointment decisionshave proven controversial for the Harper government.

A previous SIRC chair, Arthur Porter,resigned in 2011 after being accused of fraudin his past business dealings and is still in a Panamanian jail on fraud charges.

Conflict of interest controversies

Former Reform and Conservative MP Deborah Grey continues to serve as the body's interim chair, following the resignation of the previous chair, Chuck Strahl, over conflict of interest allegations.

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The other two current members are former RCMP officer and corporate security specialist Gene McLean and legal expert Yves Fortier. The recent end of Frances Lankin'sfive-year term leaves one outstanding vacancy.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association wrote to SIRC last fall demandingFortier recuse himself from the oversight body's investigation into thesurveillance of environmental activists, following complaints thatCSISgathered and shared information about campaignersopposed to Canada's energy policies.Fortier once sat on the board of TransCanada Pipelines the company behind the Keystone XL project.

The opposition is consulted before appointments to SIRC are announced but they cannot block the appointments when they do not approve. In November, the NDPreleased letters it wrote to Harper opposing his previous three appointments over concerns about potential conflicts of interest and appropriate qualifications.