Justin Trudeau’s senior staff said CSIS briefing notes did not match information conveyed to them, but spy chief said he’s made those warnings publicly.
Big revelations have emerged from the latest rounds of foreign interference inquiry hearings. At the inquiry, Canadian Security Intelligence Service director David Vigneault said the agency had intelligence before Canada 's 2019 election that China's government attempted to funnel about $250,000 through a network, possibly to interfere in Canadian elections.
But Vigneault said those in-person briefings focused on specific foreign interference threats, and that he did not convey every talking point his staff at CSIS had prepared for him.“These are more tombstone facts about foreign interference as opposed to the purpose of the meeting in October , which was about specific cases,” Vigneault told the inquiry.
The document, made public by the inquiry, warn that foreign interference is a “low-risk, high-reward” approach for hostile foreign states, that Canada has been slower to act on the issue than allies, and that the government needs to change its approach to grapple with this “existential” threat. Vigneault has been publicly talking about the threat of foreign interference operations – not just in Canadian elections, but for multiple levels of government, in private business and research and development – shortly after he assumed the role of CSIS director in 2017.
The following year, the agency’s public report called foreign interference one of the “key” national security threats facing Canada, and noted it has “accelerated and evolved.”
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