Canada’s intelligence agency must inform the government if there are threats made against any MP or their family, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.
Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has been directed to alert officials to threats, regardless of whether they are considered credible.
The development comes after the Globe and Mail reported on Monday that Beijing’s intelligence service allegedly sought to target Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family in Hong Kong, citing a top-secret document and an anonymous national security source. The Globe also reported a Chinese diplomat who remains in Canada was allegedly involved.
“We’re making it very clear to CSIS and our intelligence officials that when there are concerns that talk specifically about any MP – particularly about their family – those need to be elevated even if CSIS doesn’t feel that it’s a sufficient level of concern for them to take more direct action,” Trudeau said.
“We still need to know about it at the upper government levels.”
Trudeau said he only learned of the development on Monday after it was reported that CSIS had intelligence about the threats concerning Chong’s family two years ago.
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He said CSIS was asked to brief Chong at the time after China publicly said it would sanction him for criticizing Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. CSIS never told anybody else about the information it had, Trudeau said.
In February 2021, Chong voted in favour of a motion condemning China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority as a genocide. The following month, China sanctioned Chong, barring him from entering the county and prohibiting Chinese citizens from conducting business with him.
Trudeau said that when it comes to the safety and security of MPs or their families, intelligence agencies should always make that information known.
“If anyone ever puts a threat against an MP or a family, we need to know about it and we’re going to make sure that CSIS elevates that, even if it’s not a credible threat or doesn’t hit the threshold that they would decide is necessary,” he said.
“When it comes to MPs and their families, I think we have to have a lower threshold.”
Chong told reporters Wednesday that while he was briefed by CSIS officials at the time, it was “general in nature” and did not include specific threats regarding him or his family abroad.
Chong then took aim at the Trudeau government for not removing the Chinese diplomat from Canada.
“They didn’t tell me about this particular individual … and they didn’t expel this particular individual,” he said.
“The government needs to come clean about who knew what and when, and what they did about it.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has urged Trudeau to expel the diplomat in question and accused Trudeau of failing to take proper action, including delivering a warning to Chong.
Poilievre also said the alleged threats were reason for Canada to create a foreign agent registry as soon as possible that would keep track of people being paid to act on behalf of foreign countries in Canada.
The government launched public consultations on that idea in March, and they are expected to wrap up next week.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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