Government Screening
The Government Screening Program provides security assessments for all government departments and institutions, with the exception of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Service also has a site access program for airports, the Parliamentary Precinct and nuclear power stations. These programs assist in enhancing security and reducing the potential threat from terrorist groups and foreign governments which seek advantage from gaining access to classified information or other assets and materiel. Since September 11, the demand for CSIS advice has risen dramatically.
The majority of Government Screening resources are devoted to federal government departments. Under the Government Security Policy (GSP), federal employees, members of the Armed Forces or persons under contract to a government department who in the performance of their duties have access to classified government assets or information, are required to hold security clearances.
There are three levels of security clearance as defined by the GSP: Confidential (Level I), Secret (Level II) and Top Secret (Level III). The level of security clearance required is determined by the need for access to classified information or assets in the performance of duties associated with an individual's employment.
Level I and II security clearance requests, which are conducted electronically, require checks in CSIS data banks. Most result in a recommendation to grant the clearance being made to the Departmental or Agency Security Officer (DSO/ASO). Further enquiries including an interview with the subject or a full field investigation may be required at times, if the process reveals questionable information. A full field investigation is required for all Level III security clearances.
A field investigation includes CSIS records checks, the interview of friends, neighbours and employers, local police checks and possibly an interview of the applicant. During the course of the enquiries, every effort is made to explain the purpose of the questions being posed and participation in the interviews is voluntary.
The security screening process may reveal significant information which would lead CSIS to recommend that the requested clearance be denied. In other cases, CSIS may advise the DSO/ASO of information which, while being of concern, may be insufficient to warrant a recommendation to deny, but would nevertheless require departmental attention and appropriate action. While the Service assists the originating department by providing an assessment of the individual's reliability and loyalty to Canada, under the GSP, all departments have exclusive authority to grant or deny security clearances.
In 2003-2004, CSIS received 37,327 requests for site and airport access. A total of 37,508 security clearance requests were received for government departments and agencies including the Department of National Defence (DND). For areas of the federal government, other than DND, the median time required to process Level I applications was seven days. Level II applications required 11 days to process while Level III took 82 days. Times required for DND were 20, 18 and 96 days respectively.
Foreign Screening
CSIS has reciprocal screening agreements with the governments of foreign states, foreign agencies and international organizations which provide them with security assessments. These agreements are all approved by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness after consultation with Foreign Affairs Canada.
All persons affected by this procedure provide their agreement in advance. The requests for foreign screening typically fall within two categories: database checks and enquiries on Canadian residents wishing to take up residence in another country; or field checks and enquiries on former and current Canadian residents who are being considered for classified access in another country.
In 2003-2004, the Service received and processed 1,208 requests for security assessments in its Foreign Screening Program.
) to see what can be done about this. I'd like to get some feedback from the Army.ca community about this matter.
