The spy director relies on allegations of foreign interference in CSIS records

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OTTAWA — The head of Canada's intelligence agency is backing strong findings in a series of CSIS briefing notes, including that China “covertly and deceptively interfered” in the last two federal votes, he testified Friday.

But David Vigneault also agrees with a group of senior bureaucrats who have concluded that there is no significant threat to free and fair Canadian elections in 2021 and 2019.

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Vigneault, the director of Canada's security intelligence service, testified for the second time on Friday before a federal investigation into foreign election meddling.

He was asked to face new questions about briefing materials that were not available when he first took the stand.

Since then, CSIS memos presented in the investigation make several bold statements.

In one memo, dated February 21, 2023, CSIS alleged that China “covertly and fraudulently interfered in the 2019 and 2021 general elections.”

“We saw foreign interference during this election, and the evidence is that the interference was really covert and fraudulent,” Vigneault said in response to the excerpt during his testimony via video conference.

“However, this interference did not affect the integrity of the election.”

The same memo presented to the Commission includes specific but highly elaborated examples of potential interference and states that state actors can “successfully” engage in foreign interference in Canada because there are few legal or political consequences.

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The memorandum calls foreign intervention a “low-risk, high-reward” proposition.

Another 2022 memorandum concludes that unless Canada views foreign interference as an “existential threat” to Canadian democracy and responds with force, “those threats will persist.”

The documents were prepared for Vigneault ahead of meetings with the prime minister, but he said much of the content was not shared with Justin Trudeau or his office during those meetings.

The meetings did not refer to the documents, but instead focused on specific cases of foreign interference, he said.

However, he said that he had made such general comments many times to the Prime Minister and in other forums.

“It's something I've said publicly and privately many times,” he said.

Asked if those sentiments were passed down to him, Trudeau said those conversations informed safeguards the Liberals put in place to protect elections from foreign interference.

Under the protocol adopted by the Liberals, there would be a public announcement if a panel of bureaucrats determined that an event or series of events threatened Canada's ability to hold free and fair elections.

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There has been no such announcement for the 2019 or 2021 general elections. In both ballots, the Liberals were returned to government with a minority of seats, while the Conservatives formed the official opposition.

“No government in the history of the country has taken foreign intervention as seriously as we have in recent years, in terms of the institutions, the measures and the new tools that we have developed,” Trudeau said.

He made similar comments during his testimony before the commission earlier this week.

The conclusion of Vigneault's evidence marks the end of 10 days of fact-finding hearings, including testimony from politicians, bureaucrats and representatives of several intelligence and security agencies.

The hearings are part of an ongoing investigation into possible foreign interference in the last two general elections by China, India, Russia and others.

In the final week of testimony, the prime minister's national security adviser and other staff argued that the memos did not show that foreign actors significantly influenced the results of the last two elections.

The commission is expected to submit a preliminary report by May 3 and final recommendations by the end of the year.

In September, the commission is expected to hold another round of hearings focused on Canada's ability to detect and prevent foreign interference.

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