The National Intelligence Coordination Centre is a branch of the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

that deals with online threats. It was created in 2013 and deals with online crimes at home and abroad. It also monitors terrorist groups or protestors who might sabotage infrastructure. Information is gathered by RCMP officers, merged with information from other intelligence arms such as

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; , ''SCRS'') is a Intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service and security agency of the Government of Canada, federal government of Canada. It is responsible for gathering, processing, a ...

Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC; ) is the national financial intelligence agency of Canada. FINTRAC was established in 2000 under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act to facilitate detection a ...

. From this the NICC produces reports for the RCMP. It also produces reports for international partners in the

Five Eyes The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an Anglosphere intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are party to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperat ...

intelligence alliance.

Origins

October Crisis

Historically intelligence gathering had been done by the RCMP through their branch the RCMP Security Service. The

October Crisis The October Crisis () was a chain of political events in Canada that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross f ...

led to the RCMP collecting intelligence by stealing documents and planting dynamite on suspected radicals. Government investigations of this led to a new agency - the

being formed in 1984.

Maher Arar scandal

After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

the RCMP had a renewed interest in intelligence work. The

Communications Security Establishment The Communications Security Establishment (CSE; , ''CST''), formerly (from 2008-2014) called the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), is the Government of Canada's national cryptologic agency. It is responsible for foreign signal ...

dealt with

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

and the CSIS with

Human intelligence Human intelligence is the Intellect, intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex Cognition, cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. Using their intelligence, humans are able to learning, learn, Concept ...

. The RCMP had been frozen out of intelligence gathering and skills had atrophied.

Maher Arar Maher Arar () (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who has resided in Canada since 1987. Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 on his way ...

was arrested, rendered to

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and

tortured Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions restrict torture to ac ...

as the result of unfounded conclusions that had been shared with the FBI. A 2006 review found no evidence that he was linked to terrorist organisations and concluded the RCMP "lacked the expertise to conduct national security investigations".

Director General arrested

In September 2019 the RCMP arrested Cameron Ortis, who was director general of the National Intelligence Coordination Centre, who had been running the NICC since 2016. He had joined the RCMP in 2007 from an academic background in technology and crime, after completing a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

before he joined. He was hired as a strategic analyst - a position described as a "jack of all trades". In November 2023, a jury found Ortis guilty of multiple counts under the ''

Security of Information Act The ''Security of Information Act'' (, R.S.C. 1985, c. O-5), formerly known as the ''Official Secrets Act'', is an Act of the Parliament of Canada that addresses national security concerns, including threats of espionage by foreign powers and L ...

''. Ortis was sentenced to 14 years in prison in February 2024.

References

{{Reflist Canadian intelligence agencies Divisions and units of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police