"It’s embarrassing to admit the people we entrust with national security are doing a lousy job..." Canadian News Update and Commentary, June 2, 2023
Did nobody read the reports and just shove them into a desk drawer?
This is getting ugly now!
The testimony from the Prime Minister’s national security and intelligence advisor admits that CSIS reports about intimidation tactics against some Members of Parliament by Chinese agents were never revealed to those Ministers of Parliament. But it was, in her words, “not the fault of any one person”.
Jody Thomas is the aforementioned security advisor and she says she only learned of these reports three or four weeks ago and that the Prime Minister learned of the threats to Members of Parliament when the story appeared in the Globe and Mail.
But CSIS doesn’t report to Parliament, they send their reports to the Privy Council and to the Prime Minister’s Office.
If Ms. Thomas’s testimony is accurate, one of two things likely happened, and neither of them are acceptable.
Did someone read these reports and decide that a report of intimidation against Members of Parliament by a foreign power was not important enough to bring to the Prime Minister’s attention, or, did nobody read those reports and just shoved them into a desk drawer?
And, since we’re asking questions; why didn’t David Johnston reveal these egregious shortcomings in his report?
Is it because it’s embarrassing to admit that the people we entrust with national security are doing a lousy job?
It seems the more we discover, the more we find out there’s so much more to discover.