Lack of ‘national security culture’ in Ottawa to blame for missed intel: ex-officials
Global News
Former intelligence and national security officials say Canadian politicians are not experienced enough to recognize threats when they emerge and what to do with them.
Canada’s politicians need to be more proactive to responding to foreign interference by establishing a “national security culture” within the government to recognize threats when they emerge, former intelligence and security officials say.
While they believe institutions like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are equipped to respond to national security issues — though underfunded — very few people outside those agencies are experienced with the issue.
“Our politicians are really not very experienced in dealing with national security issues and frankly, would often prefer not to deal with them,” former CSIS director Ward Elcock told Mercedes Stephenson during a panel discussion that aired Sunday on The West Block.
“So it’s really not a surprise when things fall between the stones … when people actually aren’t experienced enough to know what the problem is.”
The question of how national security issues are handled in Ottawa has been under renewed scrutiny after the Globe and Mail reported two weeks ago that a 2021 CSIS assessment suggested the Chinese government was targeting a number of Canadian MPs, including Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family in Hong Kong.
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially suggested CSIS did not circulate that intelligence to senior officials, the Privy Council Office (PCO) later confirmed that the information was circulated to that department and other national security agencies.
The PCO told Global News on Friday that while the information was sent to the office of Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser in 2021, that office did not flag the report to either the Prime Minister’s Office or other government departments.
“Right now, I think part of the problem we’re having with foreign interference is that you’re getting all this intel, but it’s going up the chain in a very disparate way,” said Vincent Rigby, a former national security advisor who served Trudeau in 2021.