The director of Canada’s spy agency will have to testify anew at the foreign interference inquiry after advisers to the prime minister challenged the agency’s briefings and intelligence.
The Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference received late documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on April 8, which led some parties to request postponing the hearings or recalling witnesses.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue had initially rejected the request, but she decided on April 9 that CSIS Director David Vigneault would be recalled on April 12.
The decision came directly after advisers from the Prime Minister’s Office concluded their testimonies.
CSIS written briefings on foreign interference destined to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were presented to the advisers but they said this information was never briefed to Mr. Trudeau.
“We know that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections,” it says.
The briefing also has stern conclusions implying the federal government does not have enough motivation to tackle foreign interference.
“Better protecting Canadian democratic institutions against FI [foreign interference] will require a shift in the Government’s perspective and a willingness to take decisive action and impose consequence on perpetrators,” it says.
Mr. Trudeau’s Deputy Chief of Staff Brian Clow was present when CSIS would have briefed the content of the document to the prime minister and his staff in February 2023, but he said most of it was not mentioned.
“Most of what was in that document was not related to us in that meeting, particularly the very stark conclusions at the bottom of the document,” said Mr. Clow during his April 9 testimony.
He added the CSIS briefing document was actually briefing notes “presented to somebody who’s briefing us.” It “does not necessarily mean that the person briefing chooses to actually relay that information.”
Colleagues of Mr. Clow, such as senior adviser Jeremy Broadhurst, echoed this view.
Following their testimony, counsels for parties with standing at the inquiry told the commissioner witnesses need to be recalled to determine what is the nature of the CSIS documents being challenged by the PMO advisers.
Tom Jarmyn, counsel for former Tory leader Erin O'Toole, remarked that the CSIS documents are identified as briefings to the prime minister. “They’re not identified as talking points,” he said.
Mr. Jarmyn said that Mr. Clow’s personal notes taken during the CSIS briefings do not reflect the CSIS written documents related to those briefings. “I take it at face value, they would have remembered if something as clear as this had been given,” he said.
Mr. Jarmyn said it now needs to be determined what CSIS’s position is and whether its director relayed the information contained in the written briefing. He said the reasoning also needs to be known if Mr. Vigneault decided not to relay the information.
The inquiry is closing its second hearings phase on April 10 with testimony from ministers, including Mr. Trudeau.
Commissioner Hogue must file an interim report by May 3.
