Chapter 4: Federal Policing Partnerships
Special Report on the Federal Policing Mandate of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
85. Federal Policing works with many partners both domestically and internationally. Its mandate and responsibilities mean that it regularly interacts with allies and international policing organizations, other government departments and agencies, and Canadian police forces and law enforcement. These relationships serve investigative purposes and support public safety and international cooperation.
86. Federal Policing collaborates with partners on all operational, strategic and administrative issues within its purview. Collaboration within the domain of national security includes work related to the terrorist listing regime, ideologically motivated violent extremism, extra-territorial investigations, and elections security. Collaboration with respect to transnational and serious organized crime includes work related to financial crime, illegal firearms, human trafficking, international drug trafficking, border integrity and hardened secure communications. Finally, within the area of cybercrime, collaboration includes work related to botnets, disrupting infrastructure, and ransomware. Footnote 163
International
87. Federal Policing is an active member in international fora such as the Five Eyes, INTERPOL and Europol. Footnote 164 Its work with the Five Eyes is the most significant of these three, and is mostly conducted within the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG). This group’s membership includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the United States, the National Crime Agency and the Metropolitan Police from the United Kingdom, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Federal Police, and the New Zealand Police. Footnote 165 FELEG's role is to facilitate information and intelligence sharing and global criminal investigations. It sets its strategic direction through consensus and its leadership rotates every two years. The current chair of FELEG is the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. Footnote 166
88. Federal Policing participates in a number of FELEG working groups. These include the Criminal Intelligence Advisory Group, which focuses on organized crime and drug-related operations; the Money Laundering Group; the Cyber Crime Working Group, which tries to identify sophisticated cyber criminals and criminal services; and the Technical Working Group, which facilitates the technical exchange of information. Footnote 167
89. Federal Policing also maintains international partnerships through its Global Initiatives Program and the International Policing Program. Based at RCMP Headquarters, the Global Initiatives Program deploys, directs and supports 14 criminal intelligence analysts around the world to increase RCMP visibility, reach and influence. While the majority of the analysts are located in Canadian missions in select countries, three are embedded with strategic partners in Washington, D.C. (Drug Enforcement Administration), The Hague, Netherlands (Europol), and Canberra, Australia (Australian Federal Police). Footnote 168
90. Through the International Policing Program, Federal Policing assists with building law enforcement capacity abroad. Often, this assistance takes the form of courses that Federal Policing delivers on subjects such as money-laundering investigative techniques, countering violent extremism, cyber fundamentals, child exploitation interviewing techniques, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. These courses have been offered in a range of countries including Mali, the West Bank, Iraq, the Central African Republic, and Haiti. Footnote 169 Federal Policing also maintains a host of international partnerships through its International Network, which is housed within the International Policing Program. The Network is comprised of Liaison Officers and civilian analysts overseas who facilitate the sharing of information with foreign law enforcement agencies, with the goal of disrupting transnational crime with a nexus to Canada. More specifically, the International Network: facilitates major Canadian investigative inquiries in foreign countries; develops and maintains the exchange of criminal and national security intelligence between the RCMP and approved foreign authorities; provides assistance to foreign agencies in investigations that affect Canada; and coordinates and assists Canadian police investigators travelling abroad on duty. Footnote 170
91. Federal Policing works with INTERPOL and Europol. Participation in INTERPOL allows Federal Policing to exchange information with INTERPOL’s 195 member countries and gather information on individuals or crime groups via INTERPOL’s enhanced criminal databases. Federal Policing is involved in some INTERPOL-led projects and initiatives, such as an INTERPOL- and Italian-led project to combat ‘Ndrangheta, an Italian organized crime group with links to Canada. Federal Policing also participates in Europol. It has dedicated resources posted to Europol to combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking and cybercrime. It also participates in Europol regarding Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Ideologically-Motivated Violent Extremism, war crimes and corruption, and major money laundering files, including those related to cryptocurrency and sanctions emanating from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Federal Policing assesses that its participation in Europol is of significant benefit, because of the value of the information exchanged and the close working environment. Footnote 171
92. Finally, Federal Policing maintains relationships with various law enforcement partners around the world. It has over 300 memoranda of understanding with foreign law enforcement partners with the goal of developing partnerships and trust, and working towards shared policing objectives. Footnote 172
Domestic
93. Inside of Canada, the RCMP, and Federal Policing in particular, works with a number of partners. The RCMP has memoranda of understanding with many government departments and agencies including: the Department of National Defence, Global Affairs Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, the Canada Border Services Agency, Health Canada, Transport Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Correctional Service Canada, the Privy Council Office, Parliamentary Protective Service, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
94. Many of these relationships involve guidelines for the RCMP to conduct criminal investigations in areas under the jurisdiction of those departments or agencies. The RCMP also participates in a number of governmental working groups and task forces, including the Security and Intelligence Threat to Elections task force. It is also listed as an investigative body under the national security review provisions of the Investment Canada Act.
95. One of the most important domestic partnerships Federal Policing has is with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). CSIS is responsible for investigating threats to the security of Canada and the two organizations often work in parallel on cases related to national security, such as violent extremism and espionage. To facilitate this work, the RCMP and CSIS have developed One Vision, which is a blueprint for deconflicting and information sharing on investigations that involve both organizations. One Vision was originally developed in 2012 and has been updated twice since then. The first update was made after the 2015 legislative changes to the Criminal Code and the CSIS Act which permitted CSIS to use threat reduction measures. The current version, One Vision 3.0, was approved in November 2021. It reflects recommendations made in a 2019 independent review of the relationship. Both organizations noted that they needed to “adapt their culture to accept that prosecution is no longer considered to be the ‘gold standard’ of threat mitigation, as there are many threats for which a criminal prosecution is neither appropriate nor the most effective threat management measure.” Footnote 173
96. One Vision has two primary elements: deconfliction and the disclosure of information. The first element of One Vision is deconfliction. CSIS and the RCMP deconflict at the strategic and tactical levels. Strategic deconfliction occurs between the respective headquarters of CSIS and the RCMP. This type of deconfliction occurs in many context, including: parallel investigations, leads, and proposed CSIS threat reduction measures. Tactical deconfliction occurs between CSIS regions and RCMP regional offices. This is done in the context of parallel investigations, CSIS review of RCMP interview lists, and surveillance activities. Footnote 174
97. The second element of One Vision is the disclosure of information. CSIS discloses information to the RCMP to support its investigations and within the context of litigation, criminal prosecution or other judicial proceedings. Footnote 175 Between 2012 and 2021, CSIS shared information with the RCMP through disclosure and advisory letters. Essentially, a disclosure letter contains an investigative lead that cannot be used as evidence and an advisory letter contains information that the RCMP can use to apply for judicial authorization such as a search warrant. A total of 201 disclosure and 36 advisory letters were sent by CSIS to the RCMP between 2009 and April 2021. Footnote 176 One Vision 3.0 replaced these letters with “use letters.” There are six types of use letters and each letter is assigned one of three caveats, which reflect the expectations for handling CSIS information. Footnote 177
98. In practice, One Vision requires both CSIS and the RCMP to work closely. Once investigations develop, both organizations establish a strategy to coordinate and deconflict. The organizations then hold One Vision meetings where they share information to assist in understanding the threats and actors involved and work towards reaching consensus on how to manage or mitigate the threats.
99. CSIS officials briefed the Committee on the organization’s relationship with Federal Policing on February 3, 2023. They stated that One Vision 3.0 has resulted in many benefits for the CSIS-RCMP partnership. They specifically noted that it has resulted in: enhanced decision- making and reduced operational overlap; timely and prudent legal advice; and increased disclosure of CSIS information. One measure of the success of the CSIS and RCMP relationship is their collaboration in the context of One Vision. Between April 2021 and March 2022, CSIS’ Counter-Terrorism Division and the RCMP engaged in 146 One Vision discussions. This resulted in CSIS issuing 45 Use Letters to the RCMP. Footnote 178 This reflects an increase compared to previous years, although many factors could be attributed to this increase, including the COVID-19 pandemic. More data is required to properly assess the efficacy of the new Use Letter regime. Footnote 179
100. That said, information sharing is often just the beginning of investigative cooperation. In 2019, Federal Policing proposed a model based on a similar initiative in the United Kingdom to triage information and intelligence and determine which organization — the RCMP or CSIS — is best placed to take the lead. Footnote 180 Federal Policing and CSIS both acknowledge that for this initiative to be successful, “there must be a recognition and understanding of each agency’s specific mandate, operating environment, data collection, and retention requirements, each of which are unique. The end desirable is to create a co-located leads triage and management unit that will be able to assess and de-conflict in real time.” Footnote 181
101. One Vision is not a panacea to longstanding challenges with the CSIS-RCMP relationship. For example, CSIS and the RCMP must still contend with the intelligence-to-evidence dilemma, or the inherent tension between the need to protect sensitive information from disclosure, and the need to rely upon that information to support law enforcement and maintain procedural fairness in criminal proceedings. Other shared challenges include large case loads and a shortage of adequately trained personnel. Footnote 182
102. Beyond these two organizations, the leads initiative would also triage information received from tip lines and from foreign policing organizations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Footnote 183 Once analysed to determine the lead (or if a parallel investigation is warranted), all deconfliction would then occur under the framework of One Vision 3.0. Footnote 184
Canadian Law Enforcement
103. Federal Policing also maintains relationships with other police of jurisdiction within Canada. That includes municipal police and two provincial police forces: the Ontario Provincial Police and the Sûreté du Québec.
104. Officials from the Ontario Provincial Police and Sûreté du Québec briefed the Committee on the nature of their partnerships with Federal Policing on February 3, 2023. Their respective forces collaborate with Federal Policing in the areas of national security, protective services, countering major and organized crime, intelligence, investigative support, and Indigenous policing. With respect to national security, the two organizations investigate suspected offences until they meet the threshold for national security, at which point, they transfer the file to the RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs) in Ontario or Quebec or conduct parallel investigations. Both organizations are collocated and embedded within RCMP INSETs in their respective provinces as well. Federal Policing also participates in provincial anti- terrorism sections. Regarding organized crime, both organizations work closely with Federal Policing within the Canadian Integrated Response to Organized Crime (CIROC). CIROC is the operational component of the Canadian Law Enforcement Strategy to Combat Organized Crime. It is mandated to coordinate a strategic plan for combatting organized or serious crime through the integration of Canadian police efforts at the municipal, provincial, territorial, and national levels. Footnote 185
105. Officials from the Sûreté du Québec and Ontario Provincial Police informed the Committee that they work well with Federal Policing and that these partnerships are mutually beneficial. They stated that deconfliction, communication and intelligence sharing work well and that the organizations’ mandates and responsibilities are clear and distinct. Footnote 186 Federal Policing shared this view. Footnote 187
106. In addition, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has a number of committees that involve Federal Policing, such as the Organized Crime Committee, the Counter-Terrorism and National Security Committee, and the International Committee. Footnote 188