Ottawa ‘Very Concerned’ About Leak of CSIS Documents on Election Interference: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers questions at a scrum with press in Halifax, N.S., on Feb. 23, 2023. Riley Smith/The Canadian Press

The federal government is “very concerned” that Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents were leaked to the press detailing Beijing’s election interference objectives in Canada’s 2021 federal election, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau was asked at a press conference in Halifax on Feb. 23 why he believes top-secret CSIS documents were being leaked to the press and whether or not his government is worried about it.

“We are, of course, always concerned about national security,” Trudeau said. “We are always concerned about ensuring that people can have confidence, that our intelligence agencies in particular are able to do their job and keep their secrets and function as responsible agencies.”

The Globe and Mail recently cited in a report top-secret CSIS documents detailing Beijing’s attempts to interfere in the 2021 federal election.

The documents said two goals of the Chinese Communist Party in its election interference attempts were to have a minority Liberal government elected and to defeat Conservative MPs it deemed critical of the regime.

“We are very concerned with the leaks,” Trudeau said.

He added that the federal government is particularly concerned about “inaccuracies in those leaks,” but did not elaborate.

“That’s an entire other question,” he said.

At a press conference on Feb. 17, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre praised the “courageous whistleblowers” who have been leaking the secret documents on Beijing’s interference attempts, saying the Liberal government hasn’t been taking any action.

“Is it really believable that CSIS would write an entire report and share it with foreign governments without actually telling our own prime minister?” Poilievre said.

“Is it really believable that the many reports that have been written over the last four years about this that have now come to light in newspapers because they’ve been leaked by courageous whistleblowers inside our intelligence apparatus never were brought before the Prime Minister of Canada?”

Report

Trudeau also pointed to the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol, which is a non-partisan panel that was created by the Liberal government to monitor and report potential threats of interference in the 2019 election. It was also given the mandate to continue its work during future elections.

The prime minister said creating the panel was “all about ensuring that our agencies are doing the right things to keep Canadians safe and aligning with our values and priorities as a country.”

“We will continue to ensure that we have proper oversight over our agencies,” he said.

The panel is supposed to release an assessment after each election on how it communicated with Canadians called the “Critical Election Incident Public Report.”

It released such an assessment about seven months after the 2019 election, but has not yet made public one for the 2021 election.

Trudeau said he did not have any details about the delay of the report’s release.

“You'd have to talk directly to the public servants involved,” he told reporters. “But we will be following up on that.”

The Privy Council Office recently said the report will be made publicly available “in due course.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.