Global Courant 2023-05-14 23:55:36
Vincent Rigby, who served as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser from 2020 to 2021, says he has never seen a CSIS report suggesting China was targeting the family of a Canadian MP.
In an interview on Rosemary Barton Live that aired Sunday, Rigby said he had not yet seen the report at the time of his June 2021 departure.
“I retired on June 30 and I would not have seen any documents produced or distributed after that date, so no, I did not see that document and I was not aware of it,” Rigby told Rosemary Barton, CBC’s chief political correspondent.
First reported by the Globe and Mail, subsequent revelations have revealed that China had apparently targeted the family of Conservative MP Michael Chong — now serving as the party’s foreign affairs critic — in Hong Kong in retaliation for its sponsorship of a motion condemning China’s treatment of the Uighurs. minority as genocide.
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Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton talks to former National Security Adviser Vincent Rigby about AUKUS and Canada reportedly not being invited to join that trilateral defense pact between the US, UK and Australia.
Chong revealed that he learned from the current national security adviser, Jody Thomas, that the report was sent to one of her predecessors.
Earlier this week, the government expelled the Chinese diplomat allegedly involved in the intimidation scheme, and China responded with its own expulsion of the Canadian envoy in Shanghai. Chong said the eviction was years overdue.
“The fact is that we have become a kind of playground for activities with threats of foreign interference,” Chong said Monday.
Conservative MP Michael Chong stands during Question Time on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
In his terse replies, Rigby said he would likely soon appear before a parliamentary committee studying the issue of foreign interference and discuss the issue in more depth.
But he did take a stand against continued leaks from intelligence and national security sources to the media, saying he disagreed with those sources being labeled whistleblowers.
“They are not exposing illegal activity, in the classic sense of the word. What they are doing, I believe, is undermining the national security of Canada,” Rigby said.
“I’m thrilled that we’re finally having a debate about national security in this country… this is not the way to do it, by publicly leaking documents like this, this is not something I condone,” added he to it.
More MPs got in touch
As the Toronto Star first reported Friday, this country’s spy agency is now providing additional briefings to other MPs, including former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and the NDP’s Jenny Kwan.
In recent weeks, amid harsh criticism from the opposition that his administration has not responded quickly and effectively to the threat of foreign interference, Trudeau has publicly reprimanded CSIS for not sharing more information about potential threats to lawmakers.
Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino has also called up the service.
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Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Public Security Secretary Marco Mendicino about the decision to move forward with a registry of foreign agents and how it could help prevent China and other countries from interfering in Canada’s affairs as two new MPs are listed as having been notified by CSIS.
“What I would say is that it is a serious problem that in July 2021 neither the prime minister nor the minister of public security were directly briefed by CSIS at the time,” Mendicino said earlier this month.
In a separate interview broadcast Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, Mendicino said the government’s focus was on protecting parliamentarians and Canadians from foreign interference.
“It is important that we review the protocols so that information is presented directly to me when it comes to foreign interference in parliamentarians, information is presented directly to the prime minister when it comes to the same threat,” he said.
Mendicino said on Sunday that the government is still working on its proposal for a register of foreign agents as part of its response to the controversy over foreign interference.
He said the government is looking at models such as the register of lobbyists, which can be searched by the public, but consultations are ongoing.
“I just want to point out that it’s not a panacea,” Mendicino said. “We also need to make sure we take other measures and authorities, as well as being transparent and honest with Canadians about how we protect all of our institutions, including our democracy, from foreign interference.”
