The source behind foreign interference leaks 'will be found' and punished, PM's security adviser says

The prime minister's top national security adviser says she expects the security official who leaked sensitive information to the media about attempted Chinese interference in Canadian politics — prompting months of controversy over foreign interference in Canadian elections — will be caught and punished.

"The law has been broken. Sources, techniques have been put at risk. Our credibility with Five Eyes allies has been put at risk," Jody Thomas told host Catherine Cullen in an exclusive interview with CBC's The House that will air Saturday.

"There are better ways of doing this," Thomas said during the interview — her first since being named national security adviser. "There are better ways of raising your concerns within a national security agency. There are better ways of trying to bring some light to this topic than risking Canada's national security."

Starting in late 2022, a series of articles appearing in Global News and the Globe and Mail described alleged Chinese foreign interference in Canadian elections. In some cases the reports were based on leaked top-secret intelligence. The Globe and Mail eventually published a piece written by a national security source who provided information to the paper.

The source wrote that they were motivated to speak out because "it had become increasingly clear that no serious action was being considered. Worse still, evidence of senior public officials ignoring interference was beginning to mount."

Thomas has appeared a number of times before a parliamentary committee studying foreign interference in Canadian elections. She told CBC the source was wrong to leak sensitive information to the public.

"It's incredibly disturbing on a number of levels. One, that they would be so unaware of what has been done. That, two, they would risk our national security in order to leak information and gain some notoriety …" she said.

"Three, [that they] leak parts of information that don't tell a complete story, that perhaps looks salacious and scandalous in a headline, but don't tell the complete story of what came before that piece of intelligence that was leaked and what's come after and what the analysis is and what's been done with it."

Asked whether the source encouraged a conversation about national security that Canadians needed to have, Thomas said she believes "there's no benefit to leaking. I will never concede there's a benefit."

"There's a benefit to having a conversation and there's a benefit to ensuring that the security agencies are more forthcoming and more forthright with information."

Still, Thomas said Canadians do need to have a discussion about what national security really means, how concerned citizens should be about these reports and what is being done to address those concerns and ensure the security of elections.

The Liberals are embroiled in an extended controversy over their response to allegations of foreign interference. Canada's security agencies have acknowledged that foreign actors like China have sought to influence Canadian elections — but government reviews have said Canada's 2019 and 2021 elections remained free and fair and the results were not changed by any interference.

Opposition parties have been calling on the government to launch a public inquiry into the issue. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused the government of staging a cover-up.

Poilievre recently wrote to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc saying that — after David Johnston resigned as special rapporteur on foreign interference — he would not suggest any names of people who might lead a public inquiry until the government committed to holding one.