The Canadian intelligence community will have to contend with the growing influence of anti-democratic forces in the United States, including the threat posed by conservative media outlets such as Fox News, says a new report from a working group of experts on intelligence.
“The United States is and will continue to be our closest ally, but it could also become a source of threat and instability,” says a recently released report written by a working group of former national security advisers. directors of the Security Intelligence Service of Canada (CSIS). , ex-ministers, former ambassadors and academics. Members of the group have advised both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The report concludes that now is the time for the federal government to reconsider how it addresses national security.
The perpetrators, some of whom had access to Canada’s most precious secrets and reported to the Cabinet on emerging threats, say Canada has been pleased with its national security strategies and is unprepared to deal with such threats. Russian and Chinese espionage, the “democratic setback” in the United States, increased cyberattacks, and climate change.
“We think the threats are pretty serious right now, affecting Canada,” said report co-author Vincent Rigby, who until a few months ago served as Trudeau’s national security adviser.
“We do not want a crisis to happen [the] government of Canada to wake up “.
The report he helped write says that one area that needs a political pivot is Canada’s relationship with the United States.
Controversial Fox News expert Tucker Carlson took advantage of the convoy’s protests to accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of declaring a “dictatorship.” (Screenshot / FoxNews.com)
Thomas Juneau, co-director of the working group and associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Public and International Affairs, said that while Canada’s right-wing extremism is local, cross-border connections between extremist groups are alarming.
“There are growing transnational ties between right-wing extremists here and in the US, the background movement, the people’s movement, the movement of ideas, the encouragement, the support of the media, such as Fox News and other media. conservatives “. He said.
The convoy was a “ton of attention,” the adviser says
He noted the recent victory of state Sen. Doug Mastriano in the Republican primary for the governor of Pennsylvania. Mastriano is a well-known proponent of the lie that election fraud led to the loss of former President Donald Trump in 2020.
“There are serious risks of a democratic downturn in the United States, and right now, that’s not a theoretical risk,” Juneau said.
“Therefore, all of this is a serious threat to our sovereignty, to our security, and in some cases to our democratic institutions. We must rethink our relationship with the United States.”
The report points to the protest of the convoy that occupied downtown Ottawa in February and the blockades associated with a handful of border towns earlier this winter. What began as a widespread protest against VOCID-19 restrictions turned into an even broader demonstration against government authority itself, with some protesters calling for the overthrow of the elected government.
The RCMP said a weapons depot had been confiscated at the site of the protest near Coutts, Alta. four people now face a charge of conspiracy to murder.
“It should be a wake-up call,” Rigby said.
“We possibly dodged a bullet there. We really did. And we hope the government and … other levels of government have learned lessons.”
The Alberta RCMP sent this photo of what is said to be a stockpile of guns and ammunition found in three trailers near a protest blockade on the Canadian-US border in Coutts, Alta. (RCMP)
Canadian protests garnered the support of U.S. politicians and conservative media, including Fox News, the report says.
“This may not have been a foreign interference in the conventional sense, as it was not the result of the actions of a foreign government. But it did pose a greater threat to Canadian democracy than the actions of any state other than the United States, ”the report said.
“It will be a major challenge for our national security and intelligence agencies to control this threat, as it comes from the same country which is by far our biggest source of intelligence.”
During the convoy’s protest, Fox host Tucker Carlson, whose program draws millions of viewers every night, called Trudeau a “Stalinist dictator” on the air and accused him of “suspending democracy.” and declared Canada a dictatorship. “
Carlson himself has recently been attacked for pushing the concept of replacement theory, a racist concept that claims that white Americans are being deliberately replaced by immigration.
The theory was cited in the manifesto of the 18-year-old man accused of mass shooting in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York earlier this month.
Conspiracy theory has also been linked to previous mass shootings, including the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.
It calls for a new national security strategy
“When we think of threats in Canada, we think of the Soviet military threat, we think of al-Qaeda, we think of the rise of China, we think of the war in Ukraine. All this is true. But so is the l “A growing threat to Canada from the United States,” Juneau said.
“This is completely new. This requires a new way of thinking and a new way of managing our relationship with the United States.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the inaugural session of the Paris Peace Forum in 2018. The report says an increasingly aggressive Russia is just one of a series of threats to the national security in canada. (Adrian Wyld / Canadian Press)
The conversation with the U.S. doesn’t have to be awkward, but it does have to happen, Rigby said.
“I certainly wouldn’t say, ‘You’re the source of our problems.’ That wouldn’t be the conversation. The conversation would be, ‘How can we help each other?'” He said.
“We had these talks during President Trump’s term and business continues. Does it get a little harder when you have a president like Mr. Trump? Absolutely, no doubt. But we’re still close allies.”
That is why both Rigby and Juneau hope that the report will encourage the government to launch a new review of the national security strategy, which has not happened since 2004.
“I know there’s a certain cynicism around producing these strategies … another voluminous report that will end up on a shelf and accumulate dust,” Rigby said.
“But if they’re done right, they’re done quickly and they’re done efficiently and effectively, and our allies have done them, they can work, and they’re important.”
The report makes a number of recommendations. He wants a review of CSIS enabling legislation, more use of open source intelligence and efforts to strengthen cybersecurity. It also urges intelligence agencies that are usually secretive to be more open to the public, revealing more information and publishing annual threat assessments.
“There’s a new expanded definition of national security. It’s not your grandparents’ national security,” Rigby said.
“It’s time to step out of the shadows and take a step back and face these challenges.”