(Ottawa) The director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), David Vigneault, announced his resignation on Thursday. It is effective today.
“Today, July 4, 2024, I announced that I am leaving my position as Director of the Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the public service,” David Vigneault said in a statement sent to the media at the end of the day.
“It has been a great privilege for me to serve as Director of CSIS for the past seven years and to have spent nearly 20 years in public service,” he added in the same statement.
The time “has come to pass the torch to someone else,” said the man who has held the position since June 2017.
In his farewell note, David Vigneault thanks the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, the Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, and the Clerk of the Privy Council, John Hannaford.
It was not immediately clear whether the departure of the head of the Canadian spy agency was planned. The statement sent by CSIS specified that David Vigneault would not grant interviews, and that the agency itself would not “respond[ait] not to questions on the subject.”
Earlier, Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc had spoken of retirement.
“David Vigneault has spent his entire career serving Canadians, protecting them and our national interests from those who seek to harm them. As he announces his retirement from CSIS, I wish him the best for this new chapter,” he wrote on the X network.