2012 Annual Report on Use of Electronic Surveillance in Canada

The most recent issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications features the 2012 annual report on electronic surveillance from Public Safety Canada. It was published in late August.

The report outlines the use of electronic surveillance of private communications by law enforcement agencies to assist in criminal investigations.

Under the Criminal Code, agencies must obtain judicial authorization before conducting the surveillance.The government is required to prepare and present to Parliament an annual report on the use of electronic surveillance.

The 2012 Annual Report covers a five-year period from 2008 to 2012. The Report includes new statistics for the period from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012, and updates the figures for the years 2008 to 2011.

Statistics are provided for things such as:

• the number of applications made for authorizations, or for renewal of authorizations;
• the number of applications granted with or without terms and conditions, as well as the number of applications that were refused;
• the number of persons identified in an authorization who were charged for various offences;
• the number of persons not identified in an authorization, but who were arrested or charged for various offences because they became known to peace officers as a result of authorized surveillance;
• the average time for which authorizations were issued and for which renewals were granted;
• the number of authorizations valid for more than 60, 120, 180 and 240 days;
• the number of notifications given to people who had private communications intercepted;
• the types of offences for which authorizations were granted;
• a description of the classes of places set out in authorizations, and the number of authorizations granted for each class of place;
• a general description of the methods of interception used;
• the number of proceedings in which intercepted communications were entered as evidence; and
• the number of investigations in which information from intercepted communications was used but the communication itself was not entered as evidence.

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.