Former Canadian spymaster David Vigneault told the Foreign Interference Commission he was “surprised” a report on Beijing meddling produced by his agency was not read by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, reportedly because it was not shared by Trudeau’s top security adviser.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report, referred to as the “Targeting Paper,” was prepared in 2021 and explained how and why the Chinese regime targets parliamentarians. The highly sensitive report went through various stages, including being retracted and skimmed-down before being published in 2023.
Vigneault told the commission he learned from the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) that then-National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) Jody Thomas had never briefed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the report. Thomas was in the role from early 2022 to early 2024.
Vigneault, who announced he was stepping down as CSIS director in June, appeared before the commission on Sept. 27 alongside other former and current CSIS executives.
The commission is currently studying the federal government’s capacity to counter foreign interference and is interested in how intelligence is being disseminated within the state apparatus.
Vigneault said the Targeting Paper was a “very important piece of analysis that was bringing the totality of what we knew” about interference by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
This included some “exquisite intelligence that provided the picture of the continuum of the specific activities ... employed by the PRC to target elected officials in Canada,” said Vigneault.
Discussed Among Officials
A summary of Vigneault’s in-camera examination with the commission provides further details on what happened with the Targeting Paper. It had been circulated among a small number of senior officials in 2021 but had not been published.The paper was published on Feb. 13, 2023, on the Slingshot platform, which is managed by the Communications Security Establishment and is only accessible to holders of high-level security clearances. The paper was made inaccessible a few days after on Feb. 22, 2023.
The “highly sensitive nature” of the paper was then discussed among high-level officials, including Thomas, during a meeting on Feb. 24, 2023. The paper mentioned by name parliamentarians targeted by the PRC.
The commission summary says Vigneault received a request to modify the document so it could be distributed more broadly and he agreed. “Mr. Vigneault understood that a less sensitive version would be distributed,” says the summary.
Several months later, Vigneault learned during a review conducted by NSIRA that the new version of the targeted paper was never distributed to the prime minister.
“Mr. Vigneault understood from the NSIRA or NSICOP [National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians] final report that the then-NSIA Jody Thomas had decided not to share the paper with the PM [prime minister] because it was determined that the conduct described therein was more diplomatic than it was FI [foreign interference],” says the summary.
“This surprised him. He could not speculate on why such a decision would have been made, but he found the paper very pertinent,” the summary reads. “He thought it should have been distributed but the NSIA had not discussed it with him nor had she asked for his opinion.”
The Privy Council Office, which hosts the NSIA, was contacted for comment.
