More reports from the public on information about ‘threats’ to the country were received in the first four months of 2023 than in the past nine years combined, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents show. .
The statistics that The duty was able to consult have experts say that more Internet users have gone to the CSIS web portal to pass on a tip deemed worthwhile after the airing of intelligence-related reports.
The year 2023 was notably the scene of a scandal of Chinese interference in Canada, whose information was mainly based on sources within CSIS itself who were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Documents produced under the Access to Information Act show that 27 messages received from the public were classified as “threats” between January and April 2023. However, for the entire period covering the years 2014 to 2022, only 20 “threats” were found among the mass of more than 30,000 reports, the vast majority of information deemed irrelevant.
“There is no evidence that clearly demonstrates a link between these reports of foreign interference and the increase in reports in the CSIS system, but the proximity in time between the two is noteworthy,” says Matt. Malone, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia.
Documents produced under the Access to Information Act
The benefits of whistleblowing
This specialist in the protection of government secrets is at the origin of the request for these documents for a research project on the tool in line which makes it possible to transmit to CSIS any information relating to terrorism, espionage or foreign interference, in particular.
Mr. Malone informed the Duty of his accidental discovery of the recent resurgence of interest in whistleblowing. According to him, this conclusion opens the door to a broader reflection on the public interest in protecting whistleblowers. “It raises the question: did these revelations really damage public confidence, or could they have done the opposite? he recalls.
“One of the benefits of having debates on national security issues, regardless of the nature of the leaks, is that it enhances the collective knowledge of these issues, and it makes people be a little more inclined to contact CSIS, or the police,” also believes Thomas Juneau, associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
In June, the Prime Minister’s national security and intelligence adviser, Jody Thomas, reiterated that the daily’s source The Globe and Mail within Canadian intelligence was to be arrested and tried. “The law has been broken. Sources, techniques have been put at risk, ”she said at the microphone of CBC.
This source made possible a whole series of reports on allegations of Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. Before resigning, the special rapporteur appointed by the government to shed light on this affair, David Johnston, however concluded that most of the news published about the interference was exaggerated.
lean years
In consulting the statistics on the number of reports from the public, the former executive at CSIS Michel Juneau-Katsuya was especially nervous about the small proportion of them that was deemed relevant, and this, for many years.
“What concerns me is that no one went to see CSIS at that time,” he says, referring to the past nine years, a time that forms the backdrop to the various allegations of Chinese interference published in recent years. last months.
You have to go back to the last decade to see the importance that the reports took on for the intelligence agency. In 2012, 277 “threat” reports were counted among the 4,414 messages received. For the year 2013, 73 of the 8190 reports actually reported a threat. These years correspond to the “peak of the Islamist terrorist threat” for Canada, explains ex-agent Juneau-Katsuya.
Then, the online whistleblower tool seems to have been largely neglected until 2022, according to the verdict of intelligence analysts. They classified the vast majority of the thousands of reports received during this period as “nuisance”, or at best in a category called “No further action required”. Less than a dozen “threats” were detected each year and, on average, 225 messages per year were qualified as “relevant”.
“These figures show a missed opportunity,” adds Professor Thomas Juneau. Whether it is to combat foreign interference or another threat, the cooperation of the public is essential. If there are no open and transparent channels of communication, the defenses [du pays] are weakened. »
All of the experts interviewed believe that CSIS could better solicit help from the general public, such as members of the country’s diasporas who are most affected by foreign interference. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service did not respond to a request for comment from the Duty at the time these lines were written.