Blair says he ‘expected’ CSIS warrants to be dealt with ‘promptly’

The former public safety minister said he approved a warrant to investigate longtime Liberal powerbroker the day he was presented it.

Former public safety minister Bill Blair said he “was not advised” for weeks after CSIS says it told his chief of staff that it was seeking approval to investigate an Ontario Liberal powerbroker in March 2021.

What remains unclear is why, according to testimony from a CSIS official, the warrant application targeting Michael Chan, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister, sat with Blair’s chief of staff, Zita Astravas, for more than a month before he signed off on it in the run-up to the 2021 federal election.

Chan, who remains a significant figure in both provincial and federal Liberal circles in Ontario, has long been suspected of close ties to the Chinese consulate in Toronto and proxies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Canada, according to media reports – claims he has repeatedly denied.

CSIS requesting to surveil a prominent politician is a rare occurrence and would require the sign-off by a federal judge, senior officials within the spy agency and Blair, who is now minister of defence.

As the federal inquiry into foreign interference continues, it has yet to uncover a concrete explanation for the delay.

“While it was appropriate for my staff and CSIS to ensure submissions were correct and complete before it was brought to me, my expectation was and always had been that warrant applications be dealt with properly and promptly,” Blair’s statement to Global News read.

Astravas, who now works for lobbying firm Wellington Advocates, did not respond to a text message and email Tuesday.

Last week, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s foreign interference commission heard evidence that CSIS briefed Astravas on the warrant in early March and delivered the warrant to the office shortly after the briefing.