Three days of hearings are expected to begin in Vancouver today as the Security Intelligence Review Committee considers a complaint from the BC Civil Liberties Association.
The association alleges the Canadian Security Intelligence Service wrongly spied on environmental activists -- allegedly categorizing opponents of the petroleum industry as threats to national security.
But the hearings examining the secret spying are being held in secret, which BCCLA lawyer Paul Champ says is like shadow boxing with the lights out -- because he has received no information about CSIS's case.
Although the initial review committee hearings start behind closed doors in Vancouver, there likely will be additional -- even more secretive --sessions that exclude the BCCLA for national-security reasons, and an outcome could be months, or years, away.
