Trudeau says he made it 'very clear' that CSIS must share more information after China targeted Chong
CBC
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has told Canada's spy agency it needs to share more information with the federal government about threats to MPs and their families following reports that the Chinese government was targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family.
"We are making that directive now," Trudeau told reporters Wednesday.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), he said, "knew about certain things, didn't feel that it reached a threshold that required them to pass it up out of CSIS or give more than just a defensive briefing to Mr. Chong a few months later."
WATCH | CSIS decided not to brief government about alleged threats: PM
On Monday, the Globe and Mail, citing a top-secret document and an anonymous national security source, reported that China's intelligence agency was seeking information about an unnamed Canadian MP's relatives "who may be located in the PRC, for further potential sanctions."
The Globe reported that MP was Chong, and that he was targeted over his support for a parliamentary motion condemning Beijing's conduct in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China, as genocide. The Globe also said that Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat in Canada, was working on this matter.
The Globe wrote that when it originally reached out to Chong for comment, he said he had no knowledge of this.
WATCH | Conservative MP asks minister when he learned about alleged threats to family:
Trudeau has said he learned about the case Monday by reading the story.
He said he has since followed up on the matter and was told that CSIS has been giving Chong "defensive briefings," a term the agency uses for an educational briefing.
"We asked what happened to that information, was it ever briefed up out of CSIS? It was not. CSIS made the determination that it wasn't something that needed be raised to a higher level because it wasn't a significant enough concern," the prime minister said Thursday.
"Going forward, we're making it very, very clear to CSIS and all our intelligence officials that when there are concerns that talk specifically about any MP, particularly about their family, those need to be elevated.
"Even if CSIS doesn't feel that it's a sufficient level of concern for them to take more direct action, we still need to know about it at the upper government level.
"When it comes to an MP's safety, when it comes to their families' safety, we need to know."
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