canadian forces intelligence teams are keeping an eye on the personal social-media accounts of military members to see if they are posting classified information on-line.
the monitoring initiative, codenamed operation fence post, was launched in 2023 after a major leak of secret information from a united states military member on social media.
operation fence post remains ongoing despite acknowledgement by military intelligence officers that the risk of such a leak happening from the canadian forces personnel is low, according to documents obtained by the ottawa citizen.
the canadian forces declined to discuss the operation.
“for reasons of national security and to protect operational integrity, dnd/caf cannot provide further details on operation fence post,” national defence spokesperson cheryl forrest wrote in an email.
the documents noted that operation fence post was “not intended to aid law enforcement, but to serve as an early warning of threats arising from unauthorized disclosures.”
“this operation is enduring,” the fence post plan added. the heavily censored records were included with documents released under the access to information law.
military lawyers determined that the monitoring of personal social-media accounts of canadian forces members was legal and “within the mandate of the cfnciu (canadian forces national counter intelligence unit).”