Foreign interference: CSIS told B.C. premier it can’t share intelligence, documents show

B.C. and Ontario are key targets of China's foreign interference efforts but are out of the intelligence loop.

Canada’s intelligence service told B.C. Premier David Eby during a briefing on Chinese foreign interference in March that it could not share secret information, according to notes of the meeting obtained by Global News.

The hour-long March 28 meeting between the premier and the regional director general of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service followed a news report alleging China had meddled in Vancouver’s 2022 mayoral election.

The notes of the meeting show that while the premier wanted to know more so his government could respond with policies and legislation, the CSIS official explained his agency reported only to “one client”: the federal government.

Otherwise, CSIS was prohibited by law from disclosing classified intelligence, the official said. “The province doesn’t know what the province doesn’t know,” the official added, according to notes taken by the premier’s staff.

The meeting highlighted what some see as a critical weakness in Canada’s fight against foreign interference: although provincial and municipal governments are key targets of China, they are not in the intelligence loop.

With their control of strategic natural resources and significant Chinese Canadian communities, B.C. and Ontario in particular are at the front lines of China’s efforts to remake Canada as a more pro-Beijing dominion.

But as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special rapporteur on foreign interference, David Johnston, wrote in his first report, the provinces do not receive classified intelligence.

“Intelligence about foreign interference is gathered at the federal level and disseminated at the federal level, but is not disseminated to provincial or lower levels of government,” he wrote.