OTTAWA—A court has put the brakes on a Canadian Security Intelligence Service request to collect foreign information, ruling a proposed technique would stray beyond the spy service’s legal mandate. The service was seeking court warrants so it could gather intelligence in other countries, from a location inside Canada, to at the request of an unnamed federal minister. The spy service is allowed to collect information about threats to national security anywhere in the world, but there are limits on gathering intelligence unrelated to security outside Canada. Section 16 of the CSIS Act allows the service to collect, within Canada, foreign intelligence relating to the capabilities, intentions or activities of any foreign state, as long as the information-gathering is not aimed at Canadians. The court has previously noted that Parliament imposed the “within Canada” requirement because collecting intelligence in other countries could harm Canada’s international relations. In a newly released decision, …