Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will not be severing its intelligence ties to the United States – but one former analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) said the practice has taken on new risks in light of recent, and significant, leaks.
“The Trump administration has shown themselves to be untrustworthy,” said Phil Gurski, who has spent more than 30 years in the intelligence community, including his time at CSIS.
“Canada shouldn’t be confident sharing their intelligence with the U.S. We’re dealing with a rogue administration.”
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There have been two intelligence leaks credited to American sources since British officials began investigating the Manchester Arena attack this week. First, it was the name of the bombing suspect, then crime scene photos depicting shrapnel and remnants of the bomb.
Two weeks ago, U.S President Donald Trump divulged, during a closed-door meeting with the Russian foreign minister and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S, classified intelligence acquired from Israel.
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Yesterday, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a radio interview that Israel subsequently changed the manner in which it shares intelligence with the United States, though he didn’t say exactly how.
Canada, however, has no such intentions just yet.
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“The track record has shown that collaboration and co-operation between allies, friends, and partners has saved lives and keeps all of our citizens safe,” Trudeau told reporters while in Brussels for the NATO leaders’ meeting.
“We are going to continue to collaborate and to work together to ensure we’re doing everything we can to keep citizens and our communities safe.”
The recent intelligence leaks in question – those relating to the Manchester investigation and Trump’s sharing of Israel’s intelligence – shouldn’t be placed in the same basket, said Stephanie Carvin, an assistant professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University.
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Trump is one risk. Never before has Canada or its allies been in a situation where the leader of a country is the threat, she said.
On the other hand, she said, this week’s leaks represent an ongoing issue of intelligence leaks in the United States.
“This issue is not new,” said Carvin, who used to be a national security analyst with the federal government. “The sheer number of people who have clearance within the intelligence community, and without, is enormous.”
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Canada routinely shares intelligence with its Five Eyes partners – the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. But the No. 1 rule, Gurski said, is the originator of the intelligence controls its sharing – a rule the Americans seem to have discarded, he said.
To completely stop sharing information with the United States, though, would be a mistake, both national security experts told Global News in separate interviews on Thursday.
“We’re intelligence consumers, not producers,” Carvin said of the Canadian government. “By and large, our overseas intelligence collection comes from the United Sates.”
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What might happen – according to both Carvin and Gurski – is Canada gives greater pause before sharing intelligence with the United States; sharing might be treated as a little more risky, or some information, because all intelligence is treated on a case-by-case basis, might get a higher level of review, they suggested.
“It’s not in Canada’s interest to stop sharing. We get more from them than them from us,” Gurski said. “But if I’m with CSIS or the RCMP, I would feel a little bit antsy about sharing information because I wouldn’t know where it’ll end up.”
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