The Liberal government has failed to meet its own deadline to review a major national security law that granted Canada’s security and intelligence agencies sweeping new powers. The review is now three years overdue, raising serious questions about Parliament’s commitment to oversight of the country’s intelligence operations.
Bill C-59 transformed Canada’s national security landscape in June 2019, establishing the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) Act and making significant changes to how the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) operates. For the first time, the legislation also put in place civilian review and oversight of the intelligence community.
Deadline Missed by Three Years
Given the significance of these changes, the Liberals wrote into the legislation that Parliament must review the new national security regime within four years, meaning the review should have occurred in 2023. That deadline came and went without action.
Documents obtained by Global News reveal that the chair of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) raised the missed deadline with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree during a November 2025 meeting. Despite this warning, no review has been initiated.
Ten months after that meeting, Anandasangaree’s office responded by stating the minister cannot initiate the review himself. According to his spokesperson, that power rests with Parliament — where the Liberal Party has held power for the last 11 years.
Government Response: Parliamentary Process
Simon Lafortune, a spokesperson for Anandasangaree’s office, provided a statement explaining the government’s position on the delay.
“Parliamentary reviews are undertaken by Parliament, and their timing is ultimately determined through parliamentary processes. The government remains committed to supporting Parliament in its work, including with respect to the review of national security and intelligence legislation.”
Jean-Yves Duclos, the Liberal chair of the House of Commons’ public safety committee that would likely undertake the parliamentary review, did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Expert Analysis: Lack of National Security Interest
Stephanie Carvin, a professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Relations and a former CSIS analyst, offered sharp criticism of the situation. She described the missed deadline as evidence of successive federal governments’ “lack of national security interest.”
According to Carvin, national security legislation in Canada tends to follow major crises rather than proactive planning. She pointed to several examples of this reactive approach.
- Laws passed after the 9/11 attacks
- The Conservatives’ Bill C-51 following the 2014 attack on Parliament
- The Liberals’ Bill C-59 as a response to those measures
“If you think about the way we pass these bills, we tend to only pass legislation every 10 years, and usually in omnibus legislation,” Carvin explained. “And then we forget about it.”
Review Fatigue in the Intelligence Community
The expert also noted a level of “review fatigue” within Canada’s national security community. This exhaustion stems from two high-profile public probes into law enforcement and national security agencies’ operations in recent years.
The Public Order Emergency Commission in 2022 examined the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to deal with the Ottawa convoy protests. More recently, in 2024, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue led a months-long inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian politics.
Both investigations shed significant light on how the federal government approaches national security issues. They also revealed details about the operations of various policing, security, and intelligence agencies themselves.
CSIS Operating Under Outdated Legal Framework
Despite the apparent reluctance to conduct reviews, Carvin noted that CSIS has been practically begging the federal government for years to review the legislation that underpins its operations. That fundamental review hasn’t happened since the 1980s.
This means Canada’s main intelligence agency is still operating within a legal framework established before the modern internet even existed. The implications for national security in the digital age are significant.
CSIS’s 2025 annual report highlighted this problem directly. The report suggested that tweaks to its legislation over the last four decades “have been outstripped by the speed of evolving national security threats.”
Compared to its allies, Canada faces considerable challenges in collecting the intelligence needed to protect Canadians and inform decision-making. This gap in capabilities affects everything from counterterrorism to foreign interference investigations.
What This Means for Residents in Canada
For residents across Canada, including members of the Latin community, these delays have real implications. National security legislation affects how intelligence agencies can monitor threats, protect borders, and investigate crimes that may impact immigrant communities.
The foreign interference inquiry in 2024 revealed vulnerabilities that directly affect diaspora communities in Canada. Without updated legislation and proper oversight, these communities may remain exposed to foreign state activities.
The three-year delay in reviewing Bill C-59 also raises questions about government accountability. When elected officials write deadlines into legislation and then miss them by years, it undermines public trust in parliamentary processes.
As Canada continues to face evolving threats from state actors, cyberattacks, and terrorism, the need for modernized security legislation becomes increasingly urgent. The current situation suggests that without a triggering crisis, meaningful reform may remain elusive.
Why did the Liberal government miss the Bill C-59 review deadline?
The Liberal government missed the 2023 deadline to review Bill C-59 by three years. The Public Safety Minister’s office claims the power to initiate the review rests with Parliament, though the Liberals have held power for 11 years. Experts cite a general “lack of national security interest” among successive federal governments.
What is Bill C-59 and why is it important?
Bill C-59 reshaped Canada’s national security landscape in June 2019. It established the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) Act, changed how CSIS operates, and created civilian oversight of intelligence agencies for the first time.
How outdated is CSIS’s current legal framework?
The fundamental legislation governing CSIS hasn’t been reviewed since the 1980s, meaning Canada’s main intelligence agency operates under a legal framework created before the modern internet existed. CSIS’s 2025 annual report stated that legislative tweaks over four decades have been “outstripped by the speed of evolving national security threats.”
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