Canadians Should ‘Worry More’ About National Security, Says Former CSIS Director

Richard Fadden, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, appears at Senate national security and defence committee in Ottawa on April 27, 2015. A former head of Canada's spy agency is warning that this country is resting too heavily on its laurels at a time of rising global threats and upheaval, including dysfunction among its Western allies and the emergence of China and Russia as aggressive adversaries. Richard Fadden, a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and national-security adviser to prime ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, says Canada needs to take a hard look at itself to ensure it is ready to face its new reality. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

As parliamentary committees and government officials investigate alleged Chinese interference in Canada’s past two general elections, a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) says Canadians should “worry more” about the country’s current state of national security and defence.

Richard Fadden, who served as CSIS director from 2009 to 2013 and was also Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security advisor from 2015 to 2016, recently penned a Globe and Mail column in which he expressed concern about the federal government’s response to a shifting geopolitical environment—which he said includes “the rise of an increasingly assertive China” and “Russia acting in total disregard of international law.”

“To what extent have Canadians and our governments acknowledged and reacted to these changes? Not so much,” Fadden wrote in the column titled “Canadians need to worry more about defence and security,” which was published on April 17.

Fadden wrote that Canada does “what is absolutely the minimum” to stay within its G7, NATO, and NORAD treaty obligations and said national defence spending measures “tend to be low priorities.”

“It would seem that Justin Trudeau’s government has clearly decided to focus on social objectives, all of which are truly laudable,” he wrote. “Many billions have been spent or committed to this sector while the national defence/security sector has not been forgotten, but has certainly not received the attention the world situation suggests—to the consternation of our allies.”

A recent Washington Post report cited leaked Pentagon assessments that appear to corroborate Fadden’s comments on defence spending.

According to the leaked documents, Trudeau previously told NATO officials in private that Canada will never spend 2 percent of its GDP on national defence measures—which NATO has asked all its member to do since 2014.

The Pentagon assessment also reportedly said that a number of countries are disappointed with and concerned about Canada’s military spending.

In his recent column, Fadden said it is “hard not to conclude” that Canada’s federal government simply does not believe “that the deteriorating world situation is very serious.”

“To suggest otherwise must mean it shares that view but has chosen to ignore it,” he wrote. “If this is the case, it is a serious abandonment of its responsibilities to Canadians.”

‘At Risk’

Fadden recently made headlines after joining ranks with other past and present government officials and politicians calling on the Liberal government to begin an independent public inquiry into allegations of Chinese interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 general elections.

Fadden said in February that the allegations “are so serious they need to be looked into.”

“I think the first thing we need to do is to talk about this seriously, and given the general environment [in] Canada, I don’t think it’s going to work unless we have a public inquiry,” he said in an interview with Global News on Feb. 26.

Fadden concluded his recent column by saying he believes the world is going through the “greatest changes since the Second World War and certainly since the end of the Cold War” regarding political tensions.

“Almost all of these changes are for the worse,” he wrote, adding that the Canadian public needs to “tune into these challenges.”

“However, it is particularly discouraging that our government seemingly does not accept this new reality—nor does it act accordingly—putting us all at risk.”

Marnie Cathcart contributed to this report.