CSIS watchdog agency starved of staff, resources

[shockedcanadian]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csis-watchdog-agency-starved-of-staff-resources-1.2965276


SIRC received just under $3 million in the last fiscal year for its work investigating complaints against CSIS and reviewing the spy agency's activities. In 2006-07, when the Conservatives took power, the budget was roughly $2.9 million...

CSIS agents would also have access to information in other government departments that are not restricted by privacy rules.

"If you're expanding the powers then you also have to expand the capacity for oversight," says Liberal MP Irwin Cotler. "But the government is not allowing for the necessary oversight [that] will be both protective of national security and protective of the rights of Canadians."