The director of Canada’s spy agency confirmed he warned the government about the need to do more to counter foreign interference, after he was recalled to testify before the inquiry into foreign interference on April 12.
“This is a line that I have used before,” Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault told the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference.
Mr. Vigneault was commenting on a CSIS document identified as a briefing to the prime minister which says Canada is “slower” than its allies to counter foreign interference, and that there are no legal or political consequences for those conducting such activities in Canada.
He was recalled to the inquiry after that CSIS document and two others were tabled late in the proceedings. All three documents pertain to briefings Mr. Vigneault had provided to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Confusion arose after Mr. Trudeau and his senior advisers testified earlier this week that the content of the documents had generally not been transmitted to the prime minister during verbal briefings.
Mr. Vigneault had testified the week prior, hence parties at the inquiry requested he return to be questioned about the three documents.
The CSIS director agreed with the testimony from the prime minister and his staff, saying that the written briefings were meant as speaking notes.
“This material is for my review, for reference points ... It’s not something I need to transmit to somebody else,” he said.
The briefings from October 2022 and February 2023 about foreign interference (FI) offer strong observations about the federal government’s lack of efforts to counter foreign interference.
One says that Canada has been lagging behind its close intelligence partners in countering the threat, noting how some have foreign agent registries or publicly disclose nefarious activities by issuing notices about agents.
“Canada has been slower than our Five Eyes allies [original emphasis] to respond to the Fl threat with legislative and other initiatives, such as proactively publicizing successful disruption of Fl activities as a means of deterring future efforts,” says the 2022 briefing.Mr. Vigneault was asked specifically about these statements during his second testimony. He said he had not shared those concerns in the 2022 and 2023 briefings, but has done so in other settings and with a variety of officials.
“I can say with confidence that this is something that has been conveyed to the government, to ministers, the prime minister, using these words and other types of words,” he said, adding that this message has also been passed on in public settings.
‘Significant Harm’
Gib van Ert, counsel for Conservative MP Michael Chong, asked the CSIS director to confirm whether the content of the October briefing reflects the views of his agency.
“I had the chance to review the material and I do believe that it does indeed reflect the views of the Service, my personal views as a director of the Service,” he replied.
CSIS says in the October briefing that despite its knowledge and efforts on foreign interference, the “significant harm caused by these threats persist,” and noted that a “true whole-of-government approach” is required to grapple with it.
The October 2022 and February 2023 briefings for the prime minister both say the government needs to “shift” its perspective on foreign interference and develop a “willingness to take decisive action and impose consequences on perpetrators.”
Mr. Vigneault said this is something he has “absolutely” said a number of times in public and in private. “I have used expressions like ‘we need to impose cost, we need to harden Canada.’”
The Liberal government has defended establishing various mechanisms to counter interference in elections, but it has stalled on establishing a foreign influence registry and initially resisted holding a public inquiry.
These mechanisms detected foreign interference in 2019 and 2021, but the bureaucrats involved decided not to warn the public and assessed it didn’t impact the overall elections, the inquiry heard in recent days.
What Was Briefed
The CSIS director told the inquiry that what had been conveyed during the October 2022 and February 2023 briefings to the prime minister pertained to specific foreign interference cases, but was unrelated to elections.
This appears to be contradicted by a third document Mr. Vigneault was questioned about, and other testimony. Accompanying the October 2022 briefing notes is a document with the same date mentioning CSIS intelligence on the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
“The PRC [redacted] clandestinely supported candidate [redacted],” it says. “[Redacted] mobilizing support for preferred candidates at all levels of government, [redacted].”
The intelligence document adds that donations provided to candidates preferred by Beijing will “foster a bond of obligation to the PRC that will pay dividends for the promotion of CCP [Chinese Communist Party] if elected.”
Mr. Vigneault said this information was “absolutely” used to brief the prime minister on a “very specific topic.”
When he testified to the inquiry on April 10, Mr. Trudeau said he couldn’t recall whether the information had been briefed.
“I couldn’t really speak to it, there’s too many redactions on the document that I would never have seen,” he said.
The prime minister’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Brian Clow, provided similar testimony on April 9.
“Generally speaking, this does not resemble what the prime minister’s was told on the 27th,” he said. “Yes, China was very much a part of that briefing, but not the specific information you’re seeing here.”
11 Candidates
Mr. Vigneault said the February 2023 briefing was about a Globe and Mail report published at the time. On Feb. 13, 2023, the media wrote about CSIS having warned the prime minister and his senior aides about Michael Chan, the deputy mayor of Markham and a former Ontario cabinet minister. Mr. Chan has denied being involved in nefarious activities. He has not responded to inquiries from The Epoch Times.
The report also mentioned the 11 candidates targeted by the Chinese consulate in Toronto in the 2019 election. Mr. Vigneault said the briefing specifically addressed this issue.
A CSIS intelligence summary released to the inquiry says 11 federal candidates and 13 political staff members were either “implicated in or impacted by” PRC-related threat actors. The summary also says the threat actors received $250,000 from PRC officials in Canada, “possibly” for foreign interference purposes.
The commission has heard from a variety of stakeholders over two weeks of public hearings, including victims of foreign interference and top government officials. It now has three weeks to process all the gathered information to release an interim report.
After that the inquiry will enter its policy phase to examine how the government has handled the foreign interference threat. The final report from the inquiry is due by Dec. 31.
