CSIS head told Justin Trudeau to use Emergencies Act, inquiry told
OTTAWA - The head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service advised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the federal government needed to invoke the Emergencies Act to end Freedom Convoy" protests, an inquiry has heard.
In testimony Monday and in a summary of CSIS evidence, CSIS director David Vigneault told Justice Paul Rouleau his opinion was - despite a narrow definition in the CSIS Act of what his agency should consider as a security threat - that use of the act was required," based on everything he knew at the time.
Vigneault said that at the end of a critical Feb. 13 meeting of an incident response group meeting of key cabinet ministers, Trudeau asked the CSIS director to give his opinion and whether he supported the invocation of the act.
He said he based his view on how quickly he felt the dynamics could change amid cross-country demonstrations and blockades to protest the government's COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
Vigneault testified that prior to the so-called Freedom Convoy" protests, the spy agency had identified and was investigating individuals who were later identified as supporters or participants in the demonstrations.
He insisted that CSIS did not investigate the convoy itself," but said the spy agency was investigating individuals who were known already to CSIS and others who could be potentially radicalized."
Vigneault has already told a public inquiry looking into the government's use of the Emergencies Act that there was no threat to the security of Canada" as defined by the spy agency's legal mandate. Such a threat triggers national security investigations that are empowered to use secret warrantless surveillance and investigation techniques.
But he said it was up to the federal government to decide if invoking the Emergencies Act was justified on broader grounds.
Vigneault testified Monday, alongside his deputy director Michelle Tessier, and Marie-Helene Chayer and the head of Canada's threat assessment centre, about the conclusion that he presented in interviews in August with inquiry lawyers.
Tessier, the most senior working spy at CSIS, told inquiry lawyer Gord Cameron that Canada's spy agency had pre-existing targets" who were involved in the Freedom Convoy" protests. She did not detail that involvement or identify how many targets there were, say whether they were male or female, or reveal whether their roles in the protests were minor or substantive.
Vigneault said CSIS saw the tensions over public health measures during the pandemic, and that a cross-border federal vaccination mandate that affected truckers had created increased volatility in opposition to public health measures.
People whom CSIS was already investigating were engaging with this growing movement, so CSIS started putting more resources toward what was going on, he said.
Tessier said a key challenge facing CSIS has long been a more complex threat environment posed by ideologically motivated violent extremist (IMVE) movements. She said it has been difficult for CSIS and its international allies to define when such threats rise to the level of terrorism. The service has dropped the labels of right-wing and left-wing extremism, she said, because they can mean different things to different people, who could (have) legitimate viewpoints."
Tessier said that the opposition to public health measures in Canada is not an issue or movement that the service investigated. However, we have seen some of our subjects of interest, subjects of investigation in the IMVE space, exploit that type of a movement if they're anti-authority.
It is more the individuals who exploit that type of a movement to recruit individuals to bring them more towards the extreme view of anti-authority, ideology, wanting to use violence, serious violence to kill," she said.
Tessier added that CSIS has seen a rise in anti-authority violent rhetoric and threats against public officials, and it is certainly of concern to the service."
Vigneault said that in late January, CSIS was concerned about the potential for lone-actor violence coinciding with the Freedom Convoy" - meaning someone not known to the service but who could be radicalized.
By Jan. 27, when the convoy was on the eve of its arrival on Parliament Hill, CSIS did not see any tangible plot of violence.
But Vigneault says that doesn't mean there was no risk.
Tessier underlined it was a very fluid" situation, which is why the agency was deploying resources to understand what was happening.
The Emergencies Act imports, in part, a definition of a threat to security as it is detailed in the CSIS Act, the law that empowers CSIS to open a national security investigation. CSIS can use warrantless wiretapping and other surveillance techniques, including covert operations, to track subjects of its investigations.
The CSIS Act defines a threat to the security as, in part, activities within or relating to Canada directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective within Canada or a foreign state."
The inquiry has heard from senior federal officials including Privy Council clerk Janice Charette and Jody Thomas, national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, that the concept of national security encompasses broader considerations than how CSIS defines threats, and that it was ultimately up to the government - not CSIS, and not the CSIS Act - to decide if using the Emergencies Act was justified.
Vigneault, according to his pre-hearing interview, said after he learned around Feb. 10 that the government was considering resorting to the Emergencies Act, he ordered a threat assessment, and felt an obligation to convey" the agency's position that there did not exist a threat to the security of Canada as defined by the service's legal mandate."
CSIS felt that invoking the Emergencies Act could inflame extremist rhetoric and people holding anti-government views."
Vigneault also advised the government that the agency did not find any foreign state supported the protests through funding or disinformation techniques, or that any foreign state actors tried to enter Canada to help the protesters.
When the federal government invoked the never-used law on Feb. 14, it also cited fears of economic damage to Canada's reputation if border blockades continued, fears that were underscored by several senior public servants.
But Vigneault's interview summary added that CSIS did not consider the many American donors to the protests' multimillion-dollar online fundraising efforts - including through the GiveSendGo donor list that was leaked and reported on in news media like the Star, because CSIS considered it an illegal data breach. He said CSIS would have required a judicial warrant to access the database to analyze it independently.
CSIS is empowered to look at specific threats by individuals, groups and organizations, Tessier said, and can look into issues or events where there is no specific aligned" threat but where high-profile individuals or politicians attend, like Olympic Games or a G20 Summit.
Vigneault said a number of terrorist actors in Canada have been motivated by misinformation and disinformation, which creates belief in them that they must act. He said 25 people have been killed in Canada by persons CSIS said were IMVE since 2014. Examples included the Toronto van attack on Yonge Street in 2018, the 2017 attack on the Quebec City mosque, and the 2021 attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair will testify later Monday.
Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamaccAlex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga