National security advisers don’t recall receiving CSIS report on MP threats

All three national security and intelligence advisers who served Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2021 told Global News that they do not recall receiving a top secret intelligence assessment prepared that year about Beijing targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family in Hong Kong.

The development raises yet more questions about how the report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was allegedly sent to the desk of the prime minister’s top national security official, somehow fell through the cracks.

Speaking in question period last Thursday, Chong told MPs that he had been informed by the prime minister’s current national security adviser, Jody Thomas, that CSIS sent a July 20, 2021 intelligence assessment to the national security adviser in the Privy Council Office as well as to “relevant departments.”

“This report contained information that I and other MPs were being targeted by the PRC,” Chong told the House.

1:50 Michael Chong says Trudeau adviser aware of China’s alleged threat against Conservative MP

The role of the prime minister’s national security and intelligence adviser — or NSIA — is to manage the flow of information gathered from agencies, turning it into information or advice for the prime minister and the clerk of the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic agency that supports the Prime Minister’s Office.

The summer of 2021 saw several changes in the office of the NSIA, beginning with Vincent Rigby’s departure at the end of June.

Asked whether he received a copy of the intelligence report while serving as the national security adviser or in any other capacity, Rigby told Global News that he stepped down from the position on June 30, 2021.

“I would not have seen any document written or circulated after that date,” he said.

4:42 Trudeau insists info on China’s alleged threat to Michael Chong never made it to him, office

David Morrison, who was already serving as the prime minister’s foreign and defence policy adviser, took on the role in an acting capacity from early July 2021 to early January 2022.

“Mr. Morrison does not recall having received any written material regarding threats to MPs during this time,” according to a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, where Morrison now serves as deputy minister.

“He also does not recall any oral briefings or discussions on the issue while NSIA,” the department said in its statement.

Earlier this year, Morrison testified before the procedure and House affairs committee as part of its study into foreign election interference.

Morrison was also scheduled to appear before the House foreign affairs committee last Thursday on an unrelated matter, but was instead tasked by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly with summoning Chinese ambassador Cong Peiwu over the alleged threats targeting Chong and his family.

1:13 Joly summons Chinese ambassador following alleged threats to Conservative MP

That move came days after the Globe and Mail first reported that the Chinese government targeted Canadian MPs behind a February 2021 parliamentary motion that declared Beijing’s oppression of China’s Uyghur minority as constituting a genocide.

Morrison was himself temporarily replaced while acting as the prime minister’s national security adviser.

In a statement, the Privy Council Office told Global News that Mike MacDonald acted in the role from July 16 to Aug. 3, 2021.

As such, he would have started in the role just days before the CSIS report was allegedly authored.

“While the NSIA’s office regularly receives intelligence and information from security partners, Mr. MacDonald does not recall having seen any material regarding threats to MPs during this time,” said Privy Council Office spokesperson Pierre-Alain Bujold.

“As a result, no material describing any such threats was briefed to PMO.”

2:00 Canada expels Chinese diplomat over alleged targeting of Tory MP Michael Chong

After the story first broke, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially said he had no prior knowledge of the report, stating that the CSIS briefing never left the spy agency.

“CSIS made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level, because it wasn’t a significant enough concern,” Trudeau told reporters on May 3.

A day later, Chong told the House of Commons that he had been informed by Thomas that the briefing had in fact been shared beyond CSIS, suggesting that contradicted the prime minister’s initial claim.

In response, Trudeau told reporters on May 5 that he “shared the best information I had at the time.”

Trudeau has since directed CSIS to inform the government about any threats made against officials or their families, regardless of whether they are considered actionable.

3:37 Trudeau says CSIS should share information about future threats against MPs with feds

On Monday, the federal government expelled Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat who worked at the embassy in Toronto and was allegedly involved in the campaign against Chong and other MPs, declaring him “persona non grata” in Canada.

China retaliated on Tuesday and expelled Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, a consul working out of the Consulate General of Canada in Shanghai.

Beijing has denied the reports of a campaign against Chong, his family and other Canadian MPs, or that it has ever interfered in other countries’ internal affairs.

But Chong has repeatedly pointed to evidence of several other cases of Canadians and their families in China being targeted by the Chinese Communist Party, which Global News has also reported.

“My case is not unique,” he told Global News in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.