New directive requires CSIS to tell MPs, public safety minister about foreign threats
CTV
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has formally directed Canada's spy agency to investigate and disclose any foreign threats against parliamentarians, their families, their staff members or Parliament itself.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has formally directed Canada's spy agency to investigate and disclose any foreign threats against parliamentarians, their families, their staff members or Parliament itself.
Mendicino has instructed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to give such threats the highest level of attention in a new ministerial directive.
He says CSIS needs to ensure that members of Parliament are informed of threats against them, whenever that is legally possible, and inform police or law enforcement when needed.
The newly unclassified document says CSIS must also tell the public safety minister about all instances of threats against Parliament or parliamentarians and explain how it will respond.
The measures come in response to growing concerns about China's alleged attempts to meddle in the last two federal elections, and accusations that Beijing has tried to intimidate members of Parliament and their families.
Conservative MP Michael Chong is set to testify this evening at the House of Commons procedure committee about a CSIS report that alleges a Chinese diplomat tried to intimidate him over his stance on China's human-rights record.
Chong has said in the House of Commons that Jody Thomas, the prime minister's national security adviser, told him the 2021 CSIS report was sent to the Privy Council Office and to relevant government departments.
