http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/101019/national/toews_csis_rebuff
OTTAWA - Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is refusing to appear before a House of Commons committee to answer lingering questions about contentious comments by Canada's spy chief.
A Public Safety Department official told the committee Tuesday that Toews — the minister responsible for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service — will not testify at a hearing Wednesday.
CSIS director Dick Fadden said in a June television interview that he was in the process of warning at least two provinces — through the Privy Council Office — that members of their cabinets had come under foreign influence.
He also said CSIS had suspicions about a number of municipal politicians in British Columbia. Fadden was coy about the countries involved, but did not deny that China was a country of concern.
In an email to the committee clerk, the public safety official says Fadden has already made himself available to the public safety committee "for a full two hours" on the subject.
"The minister respectfully declines the committee's invitation."
Fadden's interview angered critics who said the comments cast aspersions on all elected officials with ties abroad. Liberal MP Mark Holland said he will continue to pursue the matter because Toews still has some explaining to do.
"An entire community is suffering under the weight of these allegations," Holland said Tuesday.
"The cloud of suspicion continues to grow, and you have a minister who's in hiding, refusing to come before committee to even answer generalized questions about these allegations. I think it's profoundly unfair."
Fadden, appearing before the committee in July, said he was briefed on the foreign influence issue in late 2009. Early this year, he informed national security adviser Marie-Lucie Morin of his general concerns — mainly to figure out how the provinces in question might best be warned.
Fadden said he only addressed the subject in the June TV interview because he made similar comments during a question-and-answer session following a March speech to the Royal Canadian Military Institute.
He has since informed the committee he had received "approval to proceed" from Toews' office with both the military institute speech and the June interview. But he noted the approval obviously did not include the foreign influence remarks made during the unscripted question session at the institute's event.
Morin has also been called to the public safety committee. The Privy Council Office said Tuesday she would not appear either.
CSIS has passed its report on alleged foreign influence to Toews.
"Talking points" prepared for Toews — and vetted by the Privy Council Office — after Fadden made the controversial comments suggest that CSIS making the government aware of foreign interference concerns is similar to the spy agency advising officials of possible terrorist activity or espionage.
"It is important to note that CSIS's view of such cases represent only one perspective and whether the government chooses to act in any particular case is never a foregone conclusion," say the notes. "This has always been the case in Canada and is also the case elsewhere."
Holland said CSIS made serious allegations that must be explained. "You cannot drop a bomb like that and not clear the air afterwards."
"What does it mean for somebody to be influenced? Does it mean that somebody is trying to do influence with another country, that somebody is setting up a community association or a friendship group, or does it mean that foreign governments have spies in our midsts? I think Canadians deserve that answer," he said.
"For CSIS to say this is a matter of national security — it's too late, they did talk about it."
*** This CON govt. is a scam - they keep invoking "National Security" yet they have single handedly undermined all sorts of files on this portfolio. They continually flip the middle one to the House of Commons, which is CENTRAL to our democracy. Also distressing is that they are not only suggesting private construction contracts for sensitive sites, but have shunned the communities needed to thwart future attacks. Truth be told: this CON govt. is making Canada less safe and the whole world can see it. MS ***
Showing posts with label CSIS Director comments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSIS Director comments. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
COLIN KENNY: THANK CSIS' RICHARD FADDEN
FROM: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/should+thank+Richard+Fadden/3231281/story.html
BY COLIN KENNY
We all love spies. They're tight-lipped, elusive and ethereal as ghosts -- thus their nickname: "spooks." Spies' devious and mysterious intrigues have captivated the public's imagination for centuries.
Just think how unsophisticated your country would look if its top spy were outed as being clumsy and garrulous. Those are the kinds of labels that several Canadian pundits, politicians, and so-called intelligence "experts" tried to slap on the forehead of Richard Fadden when he opened his mouth in an unusual way last week.
Fadden is the recently appointed head of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Trained as a lawyer, from 2006 to 2009 he served as deputy minister of citizenship and immigration. He was also Canada's Security and Intelligence Coordinator during and after Sept. 11, 2001.
When it was announced in June 2009 that Fadden was replacing Jim Judd as head of CSIS, the Canadian Press described him as "a career bureaucrat known for cool-headed thinking." The story quoted Prime Minister Stephen Harper as saying "Fadden's strong leadership qualities and sound judgment make him well-suited to the task of head spymaster."
Within a year, Fadden's expertise and judgment apparently all dribbled away. In a CBC interview conducted by veteran newsmen Brian Stewart and Peter Mansbridge, he alleged that foreign governments -- he strongly suggested that China was one of them -- were infiltrating Canadian politics and exerting influence over Canadian politicians, both at the provincial and municipal level.
This allegation doesn't come close to the revelation Tuesday that U.S. authorities had arrested Russian spies, some posing as Canadians, who have allegedly participated in what has been described as "a plot to penetrate the innermost circles of American power."
No, Fadden was merely talking about China and others trying to exert influence over Canadian politicians by offering them trips and other niceties in an effort to make them more sympathetic to the interests of their nations.
That kind of thing has been going on for a long time in Canada and other western nations. The South African apartheid regime was notorious for its hospitality toward Canadian members of Parliament during the 1970s and 1980s. Israel and Taiwan do likewise today.
I find this practice reprehensible. Politicians need to get out in the world and see up close what other countries are doing. But our Parliament should be paying for these trips to ensure that there are genuinely no strings attached.
Fadden did Canadians a service by pointing out that too many Canadian politicians are effectively on other countries' dole.
For this, he got lambasted. Professor Wesley Wark of the University of Toronto's Munk Centre pronounced with academic grandeur that Fadden's feet should be held to the fire and that he should offer to resign. Reg Whitaker, retired professor of political science at York University, said he found Fadden's observation "extraordinary and astonishing, because there was no gain for him to say it."
MP Olivia Chow said Fadden's charges damaged foreign relations and that "baseless spy stories belong in novels and movie theatres." I wonder what Chow thinks of that revelation from the U.S. that sleeper agents from Russia have taken up residence, some disguised as Canadians, and have a mission to influence American politics.
I believe that Whitaker is quite wrong in saying that there was no gain to be had in Fadden's saying what he said.
First, as I just pointed out, he put Canadian politicians on warning about taking trips and other freebies from foreign countries.
Secondly, CSIS has lurked in the dark corners for far too long. Canadians need to know what kind of work CSIS does, and why it is important to our country. The agency has been underfunded for decades, although a recent $300-million infusion from the government has helped somewhat. But more needs to be done. CSIS's overseas operations are pitifully understaffed to the point that (except in Afghanistan) Canada doesn't really have an overseas intelligence operation worthy of the name. That puts us alone among the members of the G20 who met in Toronto last week.
Gathering intelligence isn't just about people with secret codes playing silly clandestine games. It's about making your country's leaders more intelligent about what threats to Canada's political system and Canadian industries are out there, and passing on that intelligence when those threats put Canada at a disadvantage.
At one point in the CBC interview Peter Mansbridge stated flatly that CSIS is involved in espionage. In fact, CSIS is involved in counter-espionage. There's a big difference. We need to defend our political system and our industries from vested interests in other countries.
Until Canadians have a better idea of what CSIS does and why it is useful to them, politicians will continue to skimp on funding. There are no votes in providing a capable national intelligence agency that nobody knows anything about.
Fadden reminded us that CSIS is on the lookout for nefarious foreign activities. He and his immediate predecessor, Jim Judd, have been trying to drag CSIS out of the shadows so that Canadians understand the big picture with regard to international mischief.
The sad part is that Fadden is now liable to chill into silence, and we Canadians will stop learning about what we all need to know. He has been -- may I say it --spooked.
His critics were certain that his comments would all but destroy the meeting between Stephen Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao scheduled later in the week.
Funny thing. The prime minister's office said the subject didn't come up in the visit with the Chinese president, which apparently went exceedingly well. I guess both these guys know how countries go after what they want.
We should too. I thank Richard Fadden for his reminder.
Colin Kenny is former chair of the Senate committee on national security and defence.
E-mail: kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca.
BY COLIN KENNY
We all love spies. They're tight-lipped, elusive and ethereal as ghosts -- thus their nickname: "spooks." Spies' devious and mysterious intrigues have captivated the public's imagination for centuries.
Just think how unsophisticated your country would look if its top spy were outed as being clumsy and garrulous. Those are the kinds of labels that several Canadian pundits, politicians, and so-called intelligence "experts" tried to slap on the forehead of Richard Fadden when he opened his mouth in an unusual way last week.
Fadden is the recently appointed head of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Trained as a lawyer, from 2006 to 2009 he served as deputy minister of citizenship and immigration. He was also Canada's Security and Intelligence Coordinator during and after Sept. 11, 2001.
When it was announced in June 2009 that Fadden was replacing Jim Judd as head of CSIS, the Canadian Press described him as "a career bureaucrat known for cool-headed thinking." The story quoted Prime Minister Stephen Harper as saying "Fadden's strong leadership qualities and sound judgment make him well-suited to the task of head spymaster."
Within a year, Fadden's expertise and judgment apparently all dribbled away. In a CBC interview conducted by veteran newsmen Brian Stewart and Peter Mansbridge, he alleged that foreign governments -- he strongly suggested that China was one of them -- were infiltrating Canadian politics and exerting influence over Canadian politicians, both at the provincial and municipal level.
This allegation doesn't come close to the revelation Tuesday that U.S. authorities had arrested Russian spies, some posing as Canadians, who have allegedly participated in what has been described as "a plot to penetrate the innermost circles of American power."
No, Fadden was merely talking about China and others trying to exert influence over Canadian politicians by offering them trips and other niceties in an effort to make them more sympathetic to the interests of their nations.
That kind of thing has been going on for a long time in Canada and other western nations. The South African apartheid regime was notorious for its hospitality toward Canadian members of Parliament during the 1970s and 1980s. Israel and Taiwan do likewise today.
I find this practice reprehensible. Politicians need to get out in the world and see up close what other countries are doing. But our Parliament should be paying for these trips to ensure that there are genuinely no strings attached.
Fadden did Canadians a service by pointing out that too many Canadian politicians are effectively on other countries' dole.
For this, he got lambasted. Professor Wesley Wark of the University of Toronto's Munk Centre pronounced with academic grandeur that Fadden's feet should be held to the fire and that he should offer to resign. Reg Whitaker, retired professor of political science at York University, said he found Fadden's observation "extraordinary and astonishing, because there was no gain for him to say it."
MP Olivia Chow said Fadden's charges damaged foreign relations and that "baseless spy stories belong in novels and movie theatres." I wonder what Chow thinks of that revelation from the U.S. that sleeper agents from Russia have taken up residence, some disguised as Canadians, and have a mission to influence American politics.
I believe that Whitaker is quite wrong in saying that there was no gain to be had in Fadden's saying what he said.
First, as I just pointed out, he put Canadian politicians on warning about taking trips and other freebies from foreign countries.
Secondly, CSIS has lurked in the dark corners for far too long. Canadians need to know what kind of work CSIS does, and why it is important to our country. The agency has been underfunded for decades, although a recent $300-million infusion from the government has helped somewhat. But more needs to be done. CSIS's overseas operations are pitifully understaffed to the point that (except in Afghanistan) Canada doesn't really have an overseas intelligence operation worthy of the name. That puts us alone among the members of the G20 who met in Toronto last week.
Gathering intelligence isn't just about people with secret codes playing silly clandestine games. It's about making your country's leaders more intelligent about what threats to Canada's political system and Canadian industries are out there, and passing on that intelligence when those threats put Canada at a disadvantage.
At one point in the CBC interview Peter Mansbridge stated flatly that CSIS is involved in espionage. In fact, CSIS is involved in counter-espionage. There's a big difference. We need to defend our political system and our industries from vested interests in other countries.
Until Canadians have a better idea of what CSIS does and why it is useful to them, politicians will continue to skimp on funding. There are no votes in providing a capable national intelligence agency that nobody knows anything about.
Fadden reminded us that CSIS is on the lookout for nefarious foreign activities. He and his immediate predecessor, Jim Judd, have been trying to drag CSIS out of the shadows so that Canadians understand the big picture with regard to international mischief.
The sad part is that Fadden is now liable to chill into silence, and we Canadians will stop learning about what we all need to know. He has been -- may I say it --spooked.
His critics were certain that his comments would all but destroy the meeting between Stephen Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao scheduled later in the week.
Funny thing. The prime minister's office said the subject didn't come up in the visit with the Chinese president, which apparently went exceedingly well. I guess both these guys know how countries go after what they want.
We should too. I thank Richard Fadden for his reminder.
Colin Kenny is former chair of the Senate committee on national security and defence.
E-mail: kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca.
Friday, July 2, 2010
CSIS BOSS TO APPEAR BEFORE COMMONS COMMITTEE
*** Yeah because its just totally out of the realm of possibility that there are spies and agents looking to influence Canadian policy for their benefit. Now everybody's a national security expert. Pathetic. MS ***
FROM: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/csis-boss-to-explain-allegations-of-foreign-espionage/article1624249/
he head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will be asked to publicly explain his allegations that two unnamed provincial cabinet ministers and a number of municipal politicians from British Columbia are being influenced by foreign governments.
Richard Fadden has been summoned to appear before the Commons Public Safety committee on Monday.
Mr. Fadden caused an uproar last week when the CBC aired an interview in which he talked about the alleged influence and said he had discussed the matter with the Privy Council Office, which is the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister's Office. He retracted that statement the following day.
Mark Holland, the Liberal Public Safety critic, then circulated a motion to all members of the Public Safety committee asking that it be recalled so MPs could question the CSIS head about the statements. Members of his staff said that, in the end, all parties including the Conservatives agreed that a special meeting should be held and that Mr. Fadden should be called as a witness.
Mr. Fadden did not mention China during the interview with the CBC but did not deny that China was the country that is alleged to be exerting its influence.
Some pundits have speculated that he will lose his job as a result of the loose-lipped remarks. But others say that would be irresponsible given Mr. Fadden’s long and distinguished career as a public servant.
FROM: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/csis-boss-to-explain-allegations-of-foreign-espionage/article1624249/
he head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will be asked to publicly explain his allegations that two unnamed provincial cabinet ministers and a number of municipal politicians from British Columbia are being influenced by foreign governments.
Richard Fadden has been summoned to appear before the Commons Public Safety committee on Monday.
Mr. Fadden caused an uproar last week when the CBC aired an interview in which he talked about the alleged influence and said he had discussed the matter with the Privy Council Office, which is the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister's Office. He retracted that statement the following day.
Mark Holland, the Liberal Public Safety critic, then circulated a motion to all members of the Public Safety committee asking that it be recalled so MPs could question the CSIS head about the statements. Members of his staff said that, in the end, all parties including the Conservatives agreed that a special meeting should be held and that Mr. Fadden should be called as a witness.
Mr. Fadden did not mention China during the interview with the CBC but did not deny that China was the country that is alleged to be exerting its influence.
Some pundits have speculated that he will lose his job as a result of the loose-lipped remarks. But others say that would be irresponsible given Mr. Fadden’s long and distinguished career as a public servant.
RE: COMMENTS BY CSIS DIRECTOR
*** Hey Globe and Mail: stick to newspapers and leave the foreign influence investigations to those who know what they're talking about. MS ***
FROM: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/csis-director-should-get-smart/article1624971/
The activities of the alleged Russian spies arrested this week in the U.S. are more evocative of the TV comedy Get Smart in the 1960s than of John Le Carré’s novels, but they also invite comparison with the ambiguous but inflammatory allegations about agents of influence that Richard Fadden, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, recently made in a television interview. It is good, therefore, that Mr. Fadden has been called upon to explain his comments on Monday to the public safety committee of the House of Commons.
There is clearly nothing wrong with foreigners having conversations with Americans in the U.S. – the 11 supposed Russian agents accomplished little more – or with Canadians in Canada. They consequently collect information in their memories and sometimes in notebooks. Reporters and diplomats do so as part of their jobs, and so do friendly tourists, for the sake of pleasure and curiosity. Nor is there anything wrong with a Canadian having “quite an attachment” to another country, to borrow a phrase used in an ominous way by Mr. Fadden.
“Influence,” moreover, is an elastic word. Human beings influence each other, usually legitimately. Unfortunately, Mr. Fadden used the word vaguely in the highly charged context of espionage.
But the act of Parliament that governs CSIS may help make sense of what Mr. Fadden said. CSIS has the duty of investigating “threats to the security of Canada.” Among those threats, according to the CSIS Act, are “foreign-influenced activities that are detrimental to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive.” (The emphasis is added.)
The rather goofy behaviour of the 11 Russian operatives apparently did little damage, but included some false pretences. If this had been going on in Canada, foreign influence by itself would not have engaged CSIS, unless there was a combination of harm and deceptiveness. “The interests of Canada” is not a precise phrase, but deceit is fairly concrete, so this particular statutory definition of one class of threats adds up to a description of activities that do merit some watching.
Fortunately, CSIS is not a police force that can lay criminal charges, but keeping an eye or two on deceptive “foreign-influenced activities” is worthwhile. That does not mean that the Goethe Institute, the Alliance Française, the British Council and indeed the Confucius Institute – seemingly alluded to by Mr. Fadden – are sinister front organizations.
Some of Mr. Fadden’s remarks in his CBC interview were too broad-brush, and others too narrowly directed at small groups – most alarmingly, at provincial cabinet ministers. It is to be hoped that he can rein in his own words, and bring them inside CSIS’s mandate, when he explains himself to a standing Commons committee next week.
FROM: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/csis-director-should-get-smart/article1624971/
The activities of the alleged Russian spies arrested this week in the U.S. are more evocative of the TV comedy Get Smart in the 1960s than of John Le Carré’s novels, but they also invite comparison with the ambiguous but inflammatory allegations about agents of influence that Richard Fadden, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, recently made in a television interview. It is good, therefore, that Mr. Fadden has been called upon to explain his comments on Monday to the public safety committee of the House of Commons.
There is clearly nothing wrong with foreigners having conversations with Americans in the U.S. – the 11 supposed Russian agents accomplished little more – or with Canadians in Canada. They consequently collect information in their memories and sometimes in notebooks. Reporters and diplomats do so as part of their jobs, and so do friendly tourists, for the sake of pleasure and curiosity. Nor is there anything wrong with a Canadian having “quite an attachment” to another country, to borrow a phrase used in an ominous way by Mr. Fadden.
“Influence,” moreover, is an elastic word. Human beings influence each other, usually legitimately. Unfortunately, Mr. Fadden used the word vaguely in the highly charged context of espionage.
But the act of Parliament that governs CSIS may help make sense of what Mr. Fadden said. CSIS has the duty of investigating “threats to the security of Canada.” Among those threats, according to the CSIS Act, are “foreign-influenced activities that are detrimental to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive.” (The emphasis is added.)
The rather goofy behaviour of the 11 Russian operatives apparently did little damage, but included some false pretences. If this had been going on in Canada, foreign influence by itself would not have engaged CSIS, unless there was a combination of harm and deceptiveness. “The interests of Canada” is not a precise phrase, but deceit is fairly concrete, so this particular statutory definition of one class of threats adds up to a description of activities that do merit some watching.
Fortunately, CSIS is not a police force that can lay criminal charges, but keeping an eye or two on deceptive “foreign-influenced activities” is worthwhile. That does not mean that the Goethe Institute, the Alliance Française, the British Council and indeed the Confucius Institute – seemingly alluded to by Mr. Fadden – are sinister front organizations.
Some of Mr. Fadden’s remarks in his CBC interview were too broad-brush, and others too narrowly directed at small groups – most alarmingly, at provincial cabinet ministers. It is to be hoped that he can rein in his own words, and bring them inside CSIS’s mandate, when he explains himself to a standing Commons committee next week.
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