CSIS and Trudeau's adviser clashed on foreign interference threat during 2021: report

Intelligence regarding foreign interference sometimes didn't make it to the prime minister's desk in 2021 because Canada's spy agency and the prime minister's national security adviser didn't always see eye to eye on the nature of the threat, according to a recent report from one of Canada's intelligence watchdogs.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) released a report on Monday evening pointing to several schisms in the flow of information between Canada's intelligence agencies and the federal government during the last two federal elections.

The independent body was asked to take on the review in March 2023, following media reports, citing unnamed security sources and classified documents, that accused China of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Some of the reports also suggested that members of the Liberal government were aware of certain attempts at interference but didn't act.

The government tabled NSIRA's report late Monday in the House of Commons.

According to the intelligence watchdog, Privy Council Office and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) analysts produced reports in 2021 meant to serve as summary overviews of Chinese foreign interference activities.

The prime minister's national security intelligence adviser (NSIA), however, viewed the reports as "recounting standard diplomatic activity," Monday's report said.

"The gap between CSIS's point of view and that of the NSIA is significant, because the question is so fundamental," it said.

"CSIS collected, analyzed, and reported intelligence about activities that it considered to be significant threats to national security; one of the primary consumers of that reporting (and the de facto conduit of intelligence to the Prime Minister) disagreed with that assessment."

NSIRA said that disagreement played a role in those intelligence products not reaching the political executive, including the prime minister.

"Commitments to address political foreign interference are straightforward in theory, but will inevitably suffer in practice if rudimentary disagreements as to the nature of the threat persist in the community," the report said.

The report doesn't name which adviser it's referring to. The national security and intelligence adviser's office was in flux in 2021.

Vincent Rigby retired and left the position at the end of June of that year and was later replaced by Jody Thomas in early 2022.

Dave Morrison, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, acted as the adviser until Thomas was appointed. But during the window of July 16 to Aug. 3, 2021, Mike MacDonald was filling in.

NSIRA said the "disagreements and misalignments" between the adviser and CSIS underscore what's called the "grey zone," where political foreign interference borders on typical political or diplomatic activity.