CSIS director says he warned about foreign interference threat multiple times

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.

The head of Canada’s intelligence agency says he’s made stark warnings on the threats of foreign interference publicly multiple times, despite Justin Trudeau’s senior staff contending the spy chief did not specifically mention them during top secret briefings.

David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said Friday that he has repeatedly referred to the “existential” threat of foreign interference in public comments over the years.

Vigneault was recalled to testify again before the federal inquiry into foreign interference after Trudeau’s senior staff, including Chief of Staff Katie Telford and her deputy Brian Clow, suggested the CSIS briefing notes submitted to the inquiry did not match the information Vigneault conveyed to them in their meetings.

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 (2022), which was about specific cases,” Vigneault told the inquiry.

“I would not have gone through these notes and cover something like ‘Canada has been slower than our Five Eyes allies or others,’ because these are statements that I had made before in public and in private or during briefings to ministers.”

The Liberal government initially resisted calls for a full public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 election, but relented after months of headlines about specific allegations – mostly related to the People’s Republic of China – allegedly meddling in Canadian affairs.

Testifying earlier this week, Trudeau’s senior staff repeatedly suggested the “stark” warnings in CSIS documents submitted to the committee were not conveyed to them during in-person briefings.