Blair says top-secret memos meant for him never reached his desk

Former Public Safety minister Bill Blair says he never received several top-secret documents destined for his desk — including a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) issues management note about China’s attempts to target two Canadian members of Parliament.

Testifying before the inquiry into foreign interference Friday, Blair also maintained that he never knew about a warrant application for an investigation into foreign interference until he signed it — 54 days after CSIS had first requested it.

“I can’t approve something I don’t know anything about,” Blair told the inquiry. “So when it was brought to my attention, it was always my practice — and it was more than practice, it was every case — dealt with very promptly.”

Blair said he had been briefed on the investigation that led to the warrant application several months earlier, so when he was presented with the warrant it did not come as a surprise.

While the name of the person targeted by the warrant has not been mentioned during the inquiry’s public hearings, former Ontario MPP Michael Chan issued a statement earlier this week identifying himself as the target of the warrant.

Chan said CSIS obtained the warrant alleging that he had engineered the removal of former Liberal MP Geng Tan as the party’s candidate in the Toronto area riding of Don Valley North. He said that CSIS has found no evidence of him doing anything improper, despite 14 years of surveilling him.

While Chan has identified himself as the target of the warrant, the federal government is still trying to prevent the inquiry from allowing certain questions to be asked about the warrant during its public hearings.

Government trying to keep a lid on details of warrant

In a letter dated Oct. 7, shared with CBC News by the commission of inquiry, Department of Justice lawyers Gregory Tzemenakis and Barney Brucker said participants in the inquiry “have made inferences with respect to this warrant which appear to be based on leaked information, the veracity of which has never been publicly confirmed or denied.”

Questions to witnesses about the warrant could jeopardize national security, the lawyers wrote.

“We object to that line of questioning on the basis of national security,” says the letter. “We respectfully request that the Commission not permit questioning that is likely to cause national security injury.”

The letter adds that, under the inquiry’s terms of reference, the commissioner leading the inquiry is expected to ensure that the inquiry prevents the disclosure of information that could harm national security or jeopardize investigations.

“Public confirmation or denial of the information by the Government of Canada would create national security injury, erode national security privilege, undermine the protection of classified information in other judicial settings and processes, and create risk to CSIS’ investigations,” says the letter.

The fact that the warrant targeted a Canadian politician — and included a list of third parties whose communications with him might be intercepted — has led to speculation that someone in government slow-walked the warrant to protect Liberal Party members.

Blair’s former chief of staff, Zita Astravas, told the inquiry earlier in the week that she was briefed on the warrant 13 days after CSIS sent it to Public Safety and received another briefing on the list of third parties, also known as a Vanweenan list.

She denied the delay was for political reasons but could not explain the long delay between her briefing and Blair signing the warrant.

Testifying before the inquiry Friday, Blair repeatedly refused to answer questions about whose names appeared on the list of third parties. He also refused to say whether the list contained names of parliamentarians, cabinet ministers or people he knew.

Blair, a former police officer, insisted political considerations did not affect how he handled the warrant and he had no conflicts of interest in any of the warrant authorizations he signed as Public Safety minister.

Blair said CSIS, his chief of staff and his deputy minister did not raise any concerns about the delay in signing the warrant and there was never any question of him not signing the authorization for the warrant.

While former deputy minister of Public Safety Rob Stewart told the inquiry that briefing binders for Blair continued during the pandemic and were sent to his office, Blair testified that he never received those binders and received very few documents.

He said he only learned that Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family had been the targets of foreign interference by China when he read it in a news report — two years after CSIS prepared a memo for him in 2021 regarding proposed defensive briefings for Chong and Conservative MP Kenny Chui. Blair has said he never received that memo.

In the summary of an interview with Blair in June made public by the inquiry, Blair said he would have expected to be briefed about foreign interference targeting Chong and Chiu.

“Minister Blair stated that he would have been expected to be briefed on intelligence if there was a threat that required his attention as Minister,” says the summary. “For any such information, he wanted to have it and would have acted on it. He was not briefed with respect to these individual MPs.”

According to the summary, Blair suggested that the top-secret documents failed to reach his desk due to a bureaucratic breakdown.

“He further noted that he had since been advised that when some of the intelligence products listed in the document were sent, the individual to whom they were delivered no longer worked at [Public Safety],” says the summary. “He did not receive any secret or top-secret material from the individual whether that was while the individual was still at [Public Safety] or after he left.”

In her testimony earlier in the week, Astravas said she has since discovered that there were a number of documents the minister’s office never received.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge also testified Friday about the government’s efforts to counter disinformation and support media organizations in Canada.

St-Onge said options the government could explore include “demonetizing” disinformation by having social media platforms cut off revenue to accounts that promote disinformation.