Intel on ‘non-specific’ threats to MPs made it to PCO. Why not the PM? – National | 24CA News
A 2021 intelligence briefing on the centre of the newest international interference controversy included “non-specific threat information relating to MPs,” the Privy Council Office says.
The intelligence briefing, compiled by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), was circulated to the Privy Council Office (PCO) in addition to different “national security departments,” PCO instructed Global News in an announcement.
But PCO, the central federal division that helps Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, mentioned the “information was not raised with ministers or the prime minister.”
It’s not clear which MPs have been topic to these “non-specific” threats from international powers, or if the MPs have been named within the CSIS doc. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino refused to call which MPs have been believed to have been focused, citing federal secrecy guidelines.
“The intelligence community has now been given new direction … for flagging threats regarding MPs and their families, including non-specific threats, to senior public servants and ministers,” a PCO spokesperson mentioned in response to Global’s questions Wednesday.
“Work is underway to implement these changes.”
The House of Commons voted unanimously Wednesday to open a probe into allegations that members of Conservative MP Michael Chong’s household have been focused by Beijing for “potential sanctions.” The allegations have been first reported by the Globe and Mail, citing the 2021 CSIS doc and unnamed nationwide safety sources.
After the Globe’s story, Trudeau instructed reporters on May 3 that he first heard in regards to the allegations by way of the newspaper and recommended CSIS didn’t sufficiently flow into the intelligence amongst senior officers.
Chong subsequently instructed the House of Commons that Jody Thomas, Trudeau’s nationwide safety and intelligence adviser (NSIA), instructed him that the intelligence had been shared along with her workplace. The NSIA is a senior official inside Canada’s intelligence group, who works inside PCO and stories to the prime minister.
Trudeau later instructed reporters that he “shared the best information I had at the time.”
Further complicating the matter is that Global News reported on Tuesday that not one of the three officers who held the title of NSIA in 2021 — Vincent Rigby, David Morrison and Mike MacDonald — recalled seeing intelligence about threats to MPs throughout that interval.
“None of the three individuals who shared the duties of NSIA in summer of 2021 recall having seen any material about threats to MPs during this period,” PCO confirmed in an announcement to Global News.
The concern of international interference in Canadian affairs — and particularly operations allegedly run by China’s state safety companies — has grown right into a political headache for the governing Liberals, after months of unique reporting from Global News and the Globe and Mail.
Trudeau initially resisted calling a public inquiry into allegations Beijing was working huge and complex interference operations, however finally appointed former governor common David Johnston to find out if an inquiry was required. Johnston’s resolution is anticipated later this month.
But the partisanship that has taken over the dialogue was on full show Thursday, when Jenni Byrne — a senior adviser to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and former deputy chief of employees to Stephen Harper — testified on the House of Commons committee probing the difficulty. Byrne instructed the committee she was by no means briefed on international interference points throughout her time in Harper’s workplace between 2013 and 2014.
In a sequence of tense exchanges with Liberal and NDP MPs, Byrne accused the Liberals of failing to take international interference severely. Ryan Turnbull, a Liberal MP on the committee, listed a sequence of eight measures the federal government has taken since 2015 on nationwide safety and international affect points.
“Can you name eight from the Harper era?,” Turnbull requested.
“Regardless of the eight things you have named, we are still sitting here with the fact that for the last two elections, knowingly your government ignored advice from officials in terms of foreign interference,” Byrne shot again.
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