Trudeau's Public Safety Minister Claims He Missed '23 Memo Requiring Action On 'Counter-Foreign Interference Strategy'
OTTAWA, Canada — Justin Trudeau’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc claimed he didn't receive a memo last year requiring him to publicly release a new strategy to combat hostile state interference—testimony that jars, coming just a day after Canada announced allegations that Indian diplomats and organized crime proxies are targeting Canadians with murders and violence.
The memo in question, dated August 2023, requested LeBlanc's decision on releasing an unclassified version of the Counter-Foreign Interference Strategy, aimed at safeguarding Canadian citizens and institutions from interference activities including so-called “hybrid warfare.”
The Hogue Commission has heard this grand strategy was started by Trudeau’s government in 2018 but remains bogged within interdepartmental disagreements, and was still “nascent” in 2023.
During the hearing, Commission Counsel asked LeBlanc if he had actually received the memorandum or its attached draft strategy, to which LeBlanc responded: "I don't have a recollection of seeing that particular document."
The government's delay in releasing this strategy now appears particularly troubling given the recent allegations that have sent shockwaves through the international community.
Yesterday in an extraordinary statement RCMP alleged Canada’s public safety is endangered as Indian diplomats are tied to "homicides and violent acts," and are using "organized crime to create a perception of an unsafe environment targeting the South Asian Community in Canada," as well as perpetrating "interference into democratic processes."
Other states including China and Iran have been tied to organized crime operations in RCMP’s recent investigations, according to recent testimony.
India has refuted the allegations.
LeBlanc's testimony, suggesting that the memo slipped through bureaucratic cracks, raises serious questions about Canada's ability to respond to foreign threats.
The memo sought approval not only to release the strategy but also to have it translated into languages beyond English and French, suggesting the government's intent to address diaspora communities vulnerable to foreign interference—a concern that resonates amid claims of Indian diplomatic activity targeting Canadians and so-called “Chinese police stations” gathering intelligence on community members under the guise of offering services to diaspora citizens.
LeBlanc told Neil Chantler, a lawyer representing Chinese Canadians, that he couldn’t confirm whether there have been any arrests in RCMP’s investigation into Chinese police stations in Canada, which were allegedly used to gather intelligence on diaspora citizens.
“We’ve heard news about Canada’s expelling six Indian diplomats on the basis of intelligence,” the lawyer asked, “do you agree that expelling a Chinese diplomat would send the message to the Chinese Communist Party that Canada won’t tolerate another state treading on our territorial sovereignty?”
LeBlanc said Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly would be responsible for such a move.
Adding to the evidence of administrative delays was another memorandum surfaced requesting LeBlanc's signature by November 13, 2023, to approve briefing materials for Members of Parliament on foreign interference. LeBlanc delayed the signing of this memo, adding, "I thought it was good work,” but "I wanted an extra Parliamentary lens applied to it, and those [briefing] meetings took place in June [2024]."
The memo highlighted the need for MPs to receive unclassified threat briefings intended to provide practical advice on protecting MPs and their staff from interference, as well as to establish a regularized practice of engagement on the issues with CSIS.
A Conservative party lawyer probed LeBlanc on the controversy of Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and his chief of staff’s 54-day delay signing a CSIS warrant ahead of the September 2021 election.
LeBlanc said “I would endeavour to have it back to [CSIS] in a few days.”
“These don't come as surprises,” he said. “My experience is my chief of staff would know that there's a warrant application working, he would mention to me there's a warrant on its way.”
“In dealing with these applications can you think of any instance where it's taken 54 days from that time [of notification of an incoming warrant] to the time you signed off?” the lawyer asked.
“No,” LeBlanc said.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan's lawyer also asked LeBlanc why the names of MPs identified in Ottawa’s NSICOP 2024 report as allegedly colluding with China and India, should not be named in a Parliamentary process.
“I'll repeat it to you again, that I think it is inappropriate, if not illegal, to release names that the members of NSICOP decided to write the report about and use the words they chose,” LeBlanc said. “I don't think it's particularly helpful to use witting, unwitting, semi-witting. I think those words understandably cast an understandable concern on these parliamentarians.”
My question. Why is there not a clear sign off trail between when CSIS sends a message, who to, and when they see it. They should have an exact dated calendar. A sign off signature that something has been seen and acknowledged at the very least. This lax routine is not only not believable but if true completely inefficient. So if Russia decides to invade will they know? Thank you for your work, as always.
This honestly sounds like a skit out of the Three Stooges!!!