Spy chief welcomes terrorism investigation legislation

Canada's spy chief told a Senate committee Monday he supports proposed changes to the legislation governing national security and terrorism investigations.

Richard Fadden, who runs Canada's spy service CSIS, told senators on a special anti-terrorism committee that bill S-7 would provide more tools to law enforcement.

He said he welcomes anything that makes their work easier.

The bill would change current laws to allow the Federal Court to make public any applications to disclose "sensitive or potentially injurious information" and allow it to order that hearings related to those applications be heard in private.

It would also provide for hearings to gather information for terrorism investigations and apply conditions to people to prevent them from carrying out a terrorist activity. 

The bill would allow for annual reporting on security certificates.

And it would make it a crime to leave or try to leave Canada to commit certain acts of terrorism.

CSIS is Canada's domestic spy agency.

Its role is to collect and investigate security intelligence within Canada's borders and analyze information provided from outside the country.

It also advises the federal government on national security. 

With overlapping mandates, CSIS and the RCMP have often butted heads over security matters. 

Read Kady O'Malley's live blog of the committee. Mobile friendly text here.