Politics·Live
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc vowed to be transparent with Canadians when he testified before the commission investigating foreign election interference Friday morning — but documents tabled with the commission suggest it hasn’t been smooth sailing behind the scenes.
Government lawyers suggest there are ‘practical limitations’ to releasing information
Catharine Tunney · CBC News
· Posted: Feb 02, 2024 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 32 minutes ago
Public safety minister testifying at foreign interference inquiryFederal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc is testifying today before the inquiry probing allegations of foreign election interference.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc vowed to be transparent with Canadians when he testified before the public commission investigating foreign election interference Friday morning — but documents tabled with the commission suggest it hasn’t all been smooth sailing behind the scenes.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue and her team are probing whether China, Russia, India and other nations meddled in the past two elections, and how information about foreign interference flowed within the federal government. The inquiry was launched after media reports accused Beijing of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
The first week of hearings has focused on the problems of holding public hearings while protecting human intelligence sources and covert methods.
The commission’s lead lawyer, Shantona Chaudhury, referred Friday to an “inherent tension” between secrecy and openness in the commission’s work. LeBlanc called it a “balance.”
“It’s not an easy one, how to have a public inquiry about covert operations and state secrets,” Chaudhury said as she questioned the senior cabinet minister.
Chaudury suggested the public inquiry offers “a golden opportunity” to inform and engage Canadians.
“On the one hand, we do absolutely accept the need to maximize a public understanding of these issues. That is one of the best ways to detect and disrupt attempts to interfere in electoral processes,” LeBlanc replied.
“There is also an obligation by law, imposed by statute on the national security agencies, to protect certain classified information.”
Ottawa warns lives are at stakeHogue has made it clear she wants her commission to share as much as possible with the public. Documents tabled with the inquiry Thursday suggest that could be an uphill battle.
In a Dec. 15, 2023 letter, lawyers for the federal government wrote to commission counsel warning of “very practical limitations” on the extent to which classified information can be made public.
Before the public hearings began, the inquiry ran an exercise and asked the government to review 13 documents to see what they would look like if they were released publicly.
Most of the CSIS documents shared Thursday were entirely redacted — blacked out. One assessment, which was partially redacted, showed that Canada was considered a “high-priority” target for Chinese interference ahead of the 2021 election.
Commissioner Justice Marie-Josee Hogue listens to a lawyer speak at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Election Processes and Democratic Institutions, Friday, February 2, 2024 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)According to the Dec. 15 letter, the government’s national security lawyers told the commission they would object to any further disclosure of the information contained in the sample documents.
“Intelligence concerning multiple aspects of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) foreign interference and malign influence activities are of the utmost importance for the government of Canada because of the scope and impact of this threat,” it reads.
“These activities involve immediate threats or grave harm to Canada’s strategic interests.”
The government lawyers said the threat is multiplied by the “mosaic effect” — adversaries piecing together morsels of intelligence to get a sense of the larger picture.
“For example, media reporting has indicated that the PRC has previously successfully used such capabilities to dismantle the CIA’s human source network, resulting in severe consequences, including imprisonment and dozens of lives lost,” said the lawyers.
The commission has heard that reviewing the 13 documents for disclosure consumed 200 person-hours.
“This level of [national security confidentiality] review is not sustainable if replicated over a longer term. It is clear that redactions of documents on a large scale will not be a productive way forward within the timeframe allotted,” the national security lawyers wrote in the Dec. 15 letter.
LeBlanc says he won’t interfere in document classificationsTheir letter ends by saying the government recognizes the importance of educating the public on the threat of foreign interference and is open to dialogue with the commission going forward.
“Part of that dialogue requires a better sense of what type of information the Inquiry is interested in making public, with the understanding that there are very practical limitations on what classified information can be made public,” the letter says.
WATCH | ‘The purpose of CSIS is to have secrets,’ CSIS director tells inquiry
‘The purpose of CSIS is to have secrets,’ CSIS director tells inquiryAppearing before the public inquiry into foreign election interference, CSIS Director David Vigneault was questioned about the agency’s reasons for redacting some documents. Vigneault said the documents include classified information that was meant for intelligence experts.
LeBlanc said he has asked public service officials to work with the commission but he won’t meddle in their decisions on on releasing documents.
“Can I direct them that document X should not be top-secret but should be ‘Protected B,’ or should we release this or that information on an investigation? No,” he said.
“That would be inappropriate and it would lead to outcomes that would be less than ideal, if an elected person without that expertise was in the granularity of of the classifications.”
The discussions this week on classified intelligence are meant to set the stage for the next round of public hearings, scheduled for March.
Speaking at a news conference in Waterloo, Ont. on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the foreign interference activities of countries like China, Russia and Iran an “existential threat.”
“We recognize as well that diaspora communities, whether it’s Chinese-Canadians or others, are often the first victims of interference in our democracies and we need to make sure we are supporting them,” he said.
“Foreign interference is a very serious matter, which is why we’re pleased that the inquiry on foreign interference and democratic systems is ongoing, and we will be there to support it every step of the way, as we have from the beginning.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catharine Tunney is a reporter with CBC’s Parliament Hill bureau, where she covers national security and the RCMP. She worked previously for CBC in Nova Scotia. You can reach her at catharine.tunney@cbc.ca
Follow Cat on TwitterWith files from the Canadian Press
