This enactment amends the Parliament of Canada Act to specify that a member of the Senate or the House of Commons who applies for a secret security clearance from the Government of Canada is, for the purposes of the consideration of their application, deemed to need access to the information in respect of which the application is made.

Preamble

Whereas members of the Senate and the House of Commons play a key role in holding the Government of Canada to account and, in order to be able to fulfil that role, they must have sufficient access to critical information, including the facts and rationale underlying key government decisions;

Whereas the Government of Canada typically restricts access to classified information to individuals who pass a personnel security screening process and who need access to the information in order to perform their official duties (the “need-to-know” principle);

Whereas, in the face of threats to world peace and security posed by nefarious state and non-state actors, the Government of Canada needs to make challenging decisions relating to national security, which it must do in a manner that is consistent with its constitutional duty to be accountable to Parliament and that respects the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Bill of Rights;

Whereas there is currently no standardized method in place enabling the government to disclose to members of the Senate and the House of Commons — or allowing individual members to request and obtain access to — classified information relating to foreign affairs, national defence or public safety and national security;

Whereas the obstacles to parliamentarians’ access to classified information have been addressed in recent years on an ad hoc basis, including in the case of documents pertaining to Afghan detainees and in the case of documents regarding the shipment of ebolaviruses and henipaviruses to a laboratory controlled by the People’s Republic of China and the subsequent revocation of the security clearances and termination of the employment of two employees of a high-security laboratory in Winnipeg;

And whereas Parliament considers that a member of the Senate or the House of Commons must be able to apply for a secret security clearance and, if the member passes the personnel security screening process, to be granted that security clearance;

Now, therefore, His Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Access to Information

Deeming — need to know

13.‍1 (1) A member of the Senate or the House of Commons who applies for a secret security clearance from the Government of Canada is, for the purposes of the consideration of their application, deemed to need access to the information in respect of which the application is made.

Clarification

(2) For greater certainty, nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting in any way the powers, privileges, rights and immunities of the Senate or the House of Commons or their members.