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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was warned more than two years ago that it must take action to counter threats from state actors such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, according to a summary of a secret cabinet document made public on Monday by the investigation into foreign interference. .
The government was also warned that hostile activities by state actors (HASA) were increasing and posed “one of the greatest threats to Canada’s national security.”
“It described HASA as a multi-faceted threat targeting Canada’s strategic interests, the integrity and security of Canadian institutions and democratic processes, and the ability of the public to exercise their Charter-protected rights and freedoms,” according to the summary. of the note written in May 2022.
The summary said the intelligence community had seen threats increasing in volume and intensity and that Canada needed to do a better job of countering them.
“Canada has tools and levers to counter HASA, but these tools require better coordination and in some cases modernization to address an increasingly dynamic and complex threat environment characterized by emboldened and aggressive threat actors,” the statement said. summary. “The memorandum to Cabinet also noted that in some cases additional resources are needed to strengthen Canada’s ability to respond to this threat.”
The memorandum proposed, among other things, making Canada a “tougher and more resilient target by adopting a whole-of-society approach,” taking concrete steps to deter HASA, considering new legislative tools to counter the activity and getting the RCMP to “evolve.” undertake new capabilities and new activities.”
Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former department chief and senior intelligence officer of CSIS Asia-Pacific; Sheila Copps, former Deputy Prime Minister; and Duff Conacher, the founder of Democracy Watch, delve into Trudeau’s testimony before a public inquiry into foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
The document does not say what decision the Trudeau government made in response to the memorandum.
The Privy Council Office, which serves the prime minister and cabinet, did not respond to questions about the documents released by the inquiry as of late Monday afternoon.
The investigation shows that, after negotiations with the government, she was given unprecedented access to cabinet documents.
“The committee’s extraordinary level of access to both classified information and information subject to Cabinet confidence is unprecedented and reflects the importance of the investigative work,” said Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue.
Earlier in the day, the inquiry said China’s foreign interference extends beyond elections to other important areas of Canadian society.
Martin Green, a former top foreign intelligence expert at the Privy Council, said a special report prepared for the Privy Council’s Intelligence Assessment Secretariat in January 2022 concluded that China went beyond simply trying to influence Canada.
“You can’t just look at foreign interference through the lens of the electoral system,” Green told the inquiry. ‘I think it’s much bigger than that. You see… some kind of hybrid instruments are being used.
“So in the case of a country like China, there is clearly a very sophisticated set of instruments that includes foreign defense, national security and intelligence activities, there is economic coercion, there is military coercion, there is espionage. So there’s a range of tools that are being deployed to contribute that we’re seeing much more often.”
Green said he consulted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former national security adviser, David Morrison, about the special report. He said he later sent the report to Morrison’s successor Jody Thomas and raised the issue with her at a number of meetings.
Green said he could not explain why Thomas did not share the report with Trudeau. The report was completed shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and as truckers in Ottawa began organizing a convoy protest against government pandemic measures that paralyzed the country’s capital for three weeks.
“The government’s willingness to disclose this information to the committee will assist me in developing recommendations that will help preserve the integrity of Canada’s electoral processes and democratic institutions and increase Canadians’ confidence in their democracy. ”
The foreign interference investigation was launched following media reports accusing China of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
In her first report, made public in May, Hogue found that while it was possible that foreign interference occurred at a small number of demonstrations, she concluded that this had no impact on the overall election results.
The investigation continues Tuesday with testimony from current and former Department of Public Safety officials.
