One of the best ways to fight foreign interference in Canadian politics is for all party leaders to be security-screened so that intelligence that could affect their parties or candidates can be shared with them, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff said Tuesday.
Testifying before the inquiry into foreign interference, Katie Telford said it’s important for political leaders to be briefed on intelligence — even if they can’t tell anyone about it.
“It can only help a leader to have that information,” she said. “Which is why we encourage all leaders to get their clearance.”
Telford said that intelligence can help inform a party leader’s decisions about a candidate or an appointment.
Telford also cautioned that intelligence information can also contain errors; she cited one case where the intelligence claimed a meeting had taken place when she knew it had not.
Most current federal party leaders have accepted the government’s invitation to undergo security screening so that they can be briefed on classified intelligence about attempts by other countries to interfere in Canadian politics.
The one holdout to date is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has claimed that accepting the briefing could prevent him from speaking out.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Telford’s comments echoed NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s words on Tuesday.
Reacting to news that the federal government had expelled six Indian diplomats after the RCMP publicly linked agents of the Indian government to “widespread violence” in Canada, Singh called Poilievre’s refusal to secure a security clearance “troubling.”
“I don’t want the Indian government to think that there’s one political leader willing to look the other way when this serious level of allegations are being put forward,” Singh told reporters.
In a statement in Tuesday, Poilievre spokesman Sebastian Skamski said Poilievre received a briefing from the national security adviser on the issue, and accused Singh of “lying to distract and disinform Canadians.”
“Unlike others who are willing to limit their ability to hold the government to account on important issues of national security, Mr. Poilievre will not be gagged and left unable to speak or act on the information he may receive,” Skamski said. He added the government could use the CSIS Act to inform Poilievre of any critical national security information he needs to know, but has chosen not to.
Meanwhile, the prime minister’s deputy chief of staff Brian Clow and his senior global affairs adviser Patrick Travers told the inquiry Tuesday that the Prime Minister’s Office had been kept in the dark on important foreign intelligence regarding China’s targeting of Conservative MP Michael Chong and foreign interference attempts by the Chinese government in Canada.
In both cases, Telford, Clow and Travers insisted they first they learned of the allegations from news reports based on leaks.
Telford said the government has since taken steps to improve the secure transmission of intelligence information within the government, and to track who has seen that information.
More later …
