It is because it communicated well with the public that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) collected so many good reports in 2023, claims the institution that experts have rather criticized for its opacity.
“CSIS has been actively informing the Canadian public of the serious threat that foreign interference poses to the security of Canada,” media relations officer Lindsay Sloane said in an email.
The duty revealed that the intelligence service received more “threat” tips in the first four months of 2023 than in the past nine years combined. The beginning of the year saw a Chinese interference scandal fueled by media leaks from inside CSIS.
The federal institution responsible for counterintelligence confirms the upward trend in reports deemed worthy of interest. It also makes the connection with the recent media interest in the subject of foreign interference. However, the service praises its efforts to make its mission known to the public.
“Recent media reports of foreign interference have given CSIS an opportunity to signal that it is on the lookout for all national security information. […] CSIS officials have also testified in Parliament, engaged with the public and used social media to present the agency’s mandate and role in countering this threat,” the statement reads. response to questions from Duty.
However, it is specified that “many reasons could explain the increase in public denunciations”, while limiting the explanations on this subject to “protect activities, techniques, methods and sources of intelligence”.
Still work to do
Two experts interviewed had a different interpretation of the data appearing on documents obtained by The duty. The weak statistics of recent years lead them to say that Canadian intelligence does not communicate enough with the general public, in general. Reports made by private citizens are nevertheless essential to obtain information on foreign interference, for example.
“CSIS has made efforts in recent years to foster these communication channels, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” commented the associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of ‘Ottawa, Thomas Juneau.
Joined by The duty, former CSIS executive Daniel Stanton also believes that the leak that provided the media during this case could have had the “benefit” of making the service better known. ” There are [membres du public] who may have sensitive information to help Canada, but they don’t know how to contact the government,” he said.
Not always relevant
The man who now works as director of the Institute for Professional Development at the University of Ottawa qualifies, however: CSIS has other investigative methods that are more thorough than public information, and it is impossible for it to communicate on ongoing investigations for legal or operational reasons. “It’s not in the service to raise public awareness,” he believes.
Mr. Stanton is not surprised to find that the overwhelming majority of messages received by CSIS are labeled “nuisance” or dismissed. During his more than 30 years of service, he remembers the many impertinent or outlandish calls. Some people made calls to denounce a boss or a neighbor falsely suspected of spying, for example.
Thus, the increase in the number of reports for “threats” does not mean that there are more threats against Canada. It is more likely that this is due to a better knowledge of the tool allowing reporting via a web form or a telephone number.
Polls commissioned by the federal government have concluded that Canadians know very little about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In 2018, a study concluded that only 13% of Quebec respondents — and 30% nationally — were able to name the institution responsible for investigating threats to Canada. The same questions were then asked again in 2021, in a poll that showed no progress in CSIS awareness.