National Intelligence Coordination Centre
The National Intelligence Coordination Centre is a branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 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 or Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. From this the NICC produces reports for the RCMP.
It also produces reports for international partners in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
Origins
October Crisis
Historically intelligence gathering had been done by the RCMP through their branch the RCMP Security Service. The October Crisis 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 Canadian Security Intelligence Service being formed in 1984.Maher Arar scandal
After the September 11 attacks the RCMP had a renewed interest in intelligence work. The Communications Security Establishment dealt with signals intelligence and the CSIS with Human intelligence. The RCMP had been frozen out of intelligence gathering and skills had atrophied.Maher Arar was arrested, rendered to Syria and tortured 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".