It's never too late to do the right thing. It cannot be right to permit:
1. Politicians to appoint the Director of the SSA who is responsible for interception of communications (spying/wiretapping). (Section 4(1) of the SSA Act).
2. A politician to direct the activities of the Director (Section 4(5) of the SSA) in relation to his functions under the Interception of Communications Act
3. Wiretapping/Spying on citizens without first obtaining the approval of a Judge by issue of a warrant. (Section 6(2) (b) (i-iv) and (c) of the Interception of Communications Act).
This represents an unacceptable interference of the Executive with the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens granted to them under the Constitution which no “Society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual” would consider to be "reasonably justifiable". (Section 13 (1) of the Constitution).
As a consequence the Security Services Agency (Amendment) Bill is fundamentally flawed unless Parliament moves to make the simple amendments which will reverse the shortcomings of the Bill.
If such amendments are made then the expansion of the functions of the SSA so as to allow it to treat with Serious Crimes is a laudable initiative which will assist the State to better detect crime which is the major shortcoming of the Police Service screaming out for attention.
It is no excuse to say that the SSA has been in effect since 1995 for two reasons:
1. The Interception of Communications Act which came into force in 2010 added to the functions of the SSA, the right to wiretap/spy, which did not exist in 1995
2. The history of "illegal" wiretapping which was conducted prior to 2010, a fact which makes these concerns not simply fanciful fears but are rather grounded in reality.
I appreciate that we have to balance the rights and freedoms of the citizens against the obligation of the State to provide for the security of the Citizens.
In my view that balance can be achieved without diminishing the ability of the State to improve detection while introducing the check and balance of having a Judge determine whether and in what circumstances wiretapping/spying should be permitted. One has to look no further than the obligation imposed on the FBI to obtain a conditional warrant from a Federal Judge before spying/wiretapping is permitted.
This is not a matter of pointing fingers—there is enough blame to share around. It is simply a matter of doing the right thing. Let's make the needed amendments and move forward with a strengthened SSA. Crime is nothing to toy with in Trinidad and Tobago.
Timothy Hamel-Smith,
Port of Spain