Trudeau Briefed ‘Multiple Times’ on 2019 and 2021 Foreign Election Interference, Says National Security Adviser

Jody Thomas, Canada’s national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, appears as a witness before the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa on Nov. 17, 2022. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was briefed “multiple times” regarding Chinese election interference schemes in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections, says Jody Thomas, his national security and intelligence adviser.

Thomas made the comments while testifying on March 1 before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

The committee is currently studying allegations of foreign election interference following reports by Global News and The Globe and Mail citing secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents and intelligence sources highlighting vast interference campaigns carried out in Canada by Beijing.

Thomas, who took on the role of national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister in January 2022, said she would provide the committee with all dates on which her office has “briefed the prime minister formally” since January 2022. She noted, however, that her office also frequently has “informal discussions with him [Trudeau] about foreign interference and the activities in the national security community.”

“The prime minister would have been briefed on foreign interference in the elections multiple times between 2019 and 2021 and 2022,” Thomas told the committee. “We will endeavour to get you those dates.”

When Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked if she would undertake to provide the dates and the agencies and those involved in every instance that Trudeau was briefed about Beijing’s election interference, she replied, “I will do my best.”

‘Subtle but Effective Interference Networks’

Cooper also referred to a February 2020 Privy Council Office (PCO) “daily foreign intelligence brief” that mentioned existence of “subtle but effective interference networks” by Beijing during the 2019 election.

He said the brief, which was provided to the committee in redacted form, gave the assessment that “investigations into activities linked to the Canadian federal election in 2019 reveal an active foreign interference network.” He asked Thomas on what date the PCO shared this information with Trudeau.

Thomas said the PCO briefing document “would have been in a daily reading package” but did not confirm if the prime minister had read it.

“Would any ministers have received that?” Cooper asked.

“In all likelihood, yes,” said Thomas.

Trudeau previously responded to questions about the 2020 PCO briefing document when speaking to reporters in December 2022. He said he gets “briefed up on [foreign interference] all the time” by intelligence officials, but he did not confirm whether he specifically had read the PCO document in question.

“Foreign interference is a real thing, against our institutions, against communities, against Canadians,” Trudeau said on Dec. 14. “I get briefed up on it all the time.”

Calls for Public Inquiry

Thomas also told the committee she would deliver the names of the senior aides in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) who were reportedly advised by CSIS to rescind the candidacy of now-sitting Liberal MP Han Dong just weeks before the 2019 federal election, out of suspicion that he was a “witting affiliate” in China’s election interference networks, according to Global News.

“I will undertake to report the names of who was briefed as informed to me by CSIS,” Thomas told the committee.

The committee’s probe into the election interference reports comes amid mounting pressure from all opposition parties for Trudeau to call a public inquiry into the interference allegations.

Trudeau repeated on March 1 that he doesn’t support launching a public inquiry to investigate the matter, saying there are already “an awful lot of mechanisms that are underway right now, determining what kind of foreign interference has happened [and] is continuing to happen.”