Security officials don’t dictate ‘who can or cannot run’: PM Trudeau on alleged CSIS brief
Global News
“It is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run," Trudeau said. "That's a really important principle.”
Responding to questions Monday about a Global News report on an allegedly unusual CSIS warning about a Liberal nominee before the 2019 election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau starkly laid out boundaries for intelligence agencies in Canada.
“Let me also be very clear to a really important point that I think some folks are choosing to overlook in a free democracy,” Trudeau said. “It is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run. That’s a really important principle.”
Current and former Canadian intelligence officials would agree.
CSIS cannot instruct Canadian political parties to take any course of action, but it can offer advice on whether party members are believed to be involved in foreign interference that could threaten Canada’s security, one national security source not authorized to speak publicly said Monday.
The source added that it is up to the political parties whether to heed advice or not.
Trudeau was responding to a Global News investigative report that cited information from intelligence officials who allegedly provided Trudeau’s party with an urgent, classified briefing in late September 2019 regarding Toronto-area Liberal candidate, Han Dong.
The sources said that over the summer, CSIS had been tracking Dong — a former Ontario Liberal MPP — because they were concerned he had replaced Don Valley North Liberal incumbent Geng Tan under what they thought were suspicious circumstances.
They were concerned that Dong was believed to be the favoured candidate of officials in the Toronto Chinese consulate, according to an official with direct awareness of the alleged threat brief about Dong.
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