Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has defended his approach to national security in a sworn statement to the Commission on Foreign Interference, revealing that he now dedicates 45 minutes each Monday morning to reviewing intelligence memos. Blacklock's Reporter says the statement follows mounting criticism that Trudeau ignored warnings about Chinese Communist Party agents posing an “existential threat to Canadian democracy.”“The Prime Minister generally receives a weekly package of intelligence documents,” the In Camera Examination Summary with Commission counsel noted. Trudeau explained that he spends 45 minutes to an hour reading the documents, adding, “This is a significant devotion of time in his agenda in the context of everything else he must deal with.”Trudeau also stated that he meets "about every week" with his national security advisor, emphasizing that his role is to “understand strategically what various actors are doing,” rather than direct specific intelligence operations.This revised work routine comes after accusations that Trudeau and his aides were indifferent to repeated warnings of unlawful meddling by foreign agents. “We are buried in a mountain of process two years after these revelations have come to light with no end in sight,” testified Conservative MP Michael Chong, one of the opposition legislators named in security memos as being targeted by Chinese agents.“This is not how our institutions should function,” said Chong. He argued that despite the many processes and policies in place, “no amount of process is going to fix a system where Ministers and the Prime Minister are unwilling to uphold their responsibilities.”Declassified records from the Commission revealed that a February 21, 2023 memo from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned of the ongoing risks posed by foreign interference, stating, “State actors are able to conduct foreign interference successfully in Canada because there are few legal or political consequences.” The memo also detailed allegations that Chinese agents funneled $250,000 to pro-China public office holders in violation of the Canada Elections Act.The memo concluded that unless foreign interference is treated as “an existential threat to Canadian democracy,” the threats would persist.In response to earlier reports, Trudeau denied being briefed about specific interference targeting Conservative and New Democrat MPs, stating in May 2023, “The Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew about certain things but didn’t feel it reached a threshold that required them to pass it up out of CSIS.” He added that CSIS made the determination that the interference “wasn’t a significant enough concern” to escalate it to higher levels of government.
