CSIS flags issues with U.S. intelligence prior to Jan. 6 riot, says it faces the same problems

American intelligence agencies struggled with "inconsistencies" in their analysis and "a lack of consensus" on the nature of the threat in the weeks prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill, says an internal Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report.

That July 2021 briefing note — obtained by CBC News through an access to information request — also says that as CSIS pursues the threat of ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE) in Canada, it's dealing with many of the same challenges its U.S. counterparts faced prior to the riot.

The July 2021 briefing note includes summaries drafted by CSIS officials of the U.S. Senate's report on the attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 and the U.S. national strategy for countering domestic terrorism.

The report also includes CSIS's observations on the event, which were meant to be shared with senior officials in the public safety, defence, immigration and justice departments.

Reacting to reports from the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to American lawmakers, CSIS said there were "inconsistencies between and within intelligence products that led to a lack of consensus about the gravity of the threat posed on January 6."

The CSIS summaries flagged problems the FBI and the DHS experienced in trying to prepare for what became an assault on the Capitol by a mob of outgoing president Donald Trump's supporters.

CSIS said those problems included discerning the intent of potential threat actors, distinguishing protected free speech from credible threats of violence, obtaining lawful access to private or closed social media platforms and gaining access to encrypted channels used by IMVE individuals threatening violence.

"CSIS faces many of the same investigative challenges as its American counterparts in this space," says the document.

"These considerations reinforce the importance of CSIS's efforts to modernize and maximize its authorities, as part of Canadian and allied efforts to counter violent extremism."

CSIS defines IMVE as extremism motivated by "a range of grievances and ideas from across the traditional ideological spectrum."

"The resulting worldview consists of a personalized narrative which centres on an extremist's willingness to incite, enable and/or mobilize to violence," says the CSIS website.

The challenges raised in the briefing note have one national security expert questioning how seriously the intelligence community and law enforcement took the Freedom Convoy event before protesters opposed to vaccine mandates occupied downtown Ottawa for weeks in February.

"Where they seem to have fallen down in the U.S. seems to be the contradictory and inconsistent advice," said Stephanie Carvin, a former federal government national security analyst who now teaches at Carleton University.

"I don't know about CSIS but was that a community problem we had here in Canada that some agencies recognized and some didn't, and was [the Ottawa Police Service] getting consistent advice? That would be something I'd be interested in knowing."