A former top intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed concerns that the U.S. might use intelligence sharing as a negotiating tool during discussions about Canada's defence spending. Vincent Rigby warned that the Donald Trump administration could leverage access to American intelligence, potentially even weaponizing it, to pressure Canada into meeting its NATO commitment of spending two percent of its GDP on defence.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Alex Brandon
“We hear so much about defense spending and two per cent, and what the U.S. may or may not do if we don’t step up to plate,” Rigby told a crowd at a Canada Global Affairs Institute conference Wednesday afternoon. “I’m afraid at one point, intelligence is going to be used as a negotiating tool.” Rigby was Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser during the early years of the pandemic.
Last year, then-public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc told the public inquiry into foreign interference that such shared intelligence is vital to anti-terrorism investigations and protecting Canada’s security. Ottawa frequently relies on information from allies with massive, built-up foreign intelligence systems, such as Britain’s MI6 and the American CIA.
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