Filmon making issue a priority

Canada's spy service should stop destroying original notes or recordings, the chair of the service's civilian oversight committee says. Gary Filmon said in an interview that one of his priorities as the new chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee is to push for a change in the security service's policy that requires employees to shred or erase original material, arguing that there are cases where information can be stored without infringing on the privacy rights of Canadians. "To just have a blanket (direction to) destroy after such and such a period of time doesn't make sense to us and that's what we're saying to CSIS," said Filmon, a former Manitoba premier, who became SIRC's chair in June.

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