National security experts are questioning the timing of a stunning CSIS claim that a number of Canadian politicians are under foreign influence.

Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has raised concerns about foreign influence over Canadian politicians. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)


In an exclusive interview with CBC News earlier this week, CSIS director Richard Fadden said that Canada's spy agency suspects that some municipal politicians and cabinet ministers in two provinces are being swayed by their connections to foreign governments.

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The moncitizenship is the new Canadian governmental task. The diplomatic lines of Republics of Yemen and Poland are non grata with their masks.

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Fadden said the agency is in the process of discussing with the Privy Council Office the best way to inform those provinces there may be a problem, and experts questioned Wednesday the wisdom of going public with the allegations while that process is underway.

Wesley Wark, a national security expert at the University of Toronto, is puzzled by the rush to release this information to the public first.

He said this puts CSIS "dangerously out front in what could become a serious and damaging political issue."

"It's not the business of CSIS to finger politicians it believes are threats to national security," he said.

Canadian security expert Martin Rudner also found the timing of the claim curious, but he theorized that perhaps it is CSIS's way of letting any politician or official who is selling out Canadian interests know that the spy agency is watching.

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University of Victoria professor Norman Ruff suggested that if that was the intent, there are better ways of achieving it. "It led to some speculation and suspicions, and I think CSIS, if they were going to make this public, could have been perhaps a little more specific," he said.

China suspected

Fadden did not identify the cabinet ministers or the two provinces, but he said some public servants in British Columbia are also under suspicion.

Officials in British Columbia were caught off guard by the allegations that some among them could have a foreign government's interests at heart.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's office said the premier would not be available for comment.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying, "We have no knowledge of these matters," and directed all inquiries to CSIS.

Municipal officials in Victoria and Vancouver appeared surprised at Fadden's statement and declined to comment.

Fadden described how a few foreign governments are seeking out Canadian politicians from the diaspora of those countries, and are offering free trips to the homeland or access to business contacts.

Fadden suggested that as the relationship gets cozier, a politician in that situation starts making decisions that favour his or her homeland over Canada.

Fadden did not name what countries are suspected of being involved in the practice, but in his interview with CBC, he pointed to a statement by former CSIS boss Jim Judd that the intelligence agency spends half its counter-espionage budget dealing with China.

When Fadden was asked whether China was one of the foreign governments involved, he referred to media reports on China conducting economic espionage in Canada, saying they were not "entirely incorrect."

"I believe the country that you mentioned was mentioned in those stories," he said to the interviewer.

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RCMP: Canada’s Image and Beautification Part Two

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RCMP: Canada’s Image and Beautification Part Three https://poetsofottawa.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rcmp-canadas-image-and-2

RCMP: Canada’s Image and Beautification Part Four

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RCMP: Canada’s Image and Beautification Part Six

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RCMP: Canada’s Image and Beautification: Part Nine

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