Politics not factor in delay in arrest warrant for Liberal powerbroker, Blair says – National
Former Minister of Public Security Bill Blair says he ignored partisan politics when it came time to approve a spy warrant to surveil an Ontario Liberal power broker.
There was a 54-day gap in 2021 between when the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) submitted a request for a warrant and when Blair finally authorized it. Meanwhile, CSIS officers became frustrated with what they perceived as a delay by the minister’s office in investigating Michael Chana former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister.
During several days of testimony at foreign interference — including Blair, his former chief of staff, Zita Astravas, and senior CSIS officials — it remains unclear why this mandate took so much longer than most CSIS requests to the minister.
But Blair, now defense minister, said on Friday morning that politics was not to blame for the delay in approving the surveillance, which was finally approved just months before the 2021 federal election .
“When this warrant request was presented to me, I never considered anything other than my legal responsibility to review and, where appropriate, approve the warrant,” said Blair, who said he signed the warrant the same day he received it, told the commission.
“There were no other considerations and certainly no political considerations.”
Three weeks after Blair signed the warrant, a Federal Court judge approved CSIS’s request to investigate Chan.
Media reports have identified Chan as suspected of working with the Chinese government since 2015, when Astravas worked in Prime Minister Kathleen Wynne’s office as director of media relations and Chan was a serving minister.
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“Michael Chan is a man of character who has honorably served the people of Markham-Unionville and all Ontarians,” Astravas told The Globe and Mail, which first reported CSIS’s interest in Chan, in June 2015 .
Chan, now deputy mayor of Markham, is currently suing CSIS and two journalists, including a former employee of Global News, for leaks and press articles.
The delay with this particular mandate has become a central narrative in the second phase of Judge Marie-Josée Hogue’s public inquiry, similarly to the “irregularities” surrounding Han Dong’s 2019 Liberal nomination in Don Valley -North dominated the first phase.
The 2019 nomination article focused on how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) would interfere in Canadian democracy. Questions surrounding the Chan mandate have more to do with how the federal government responds to allegations of foreign interference.
The warrant was issued to the minister’s office in the middle of a global pandemic, and Blair and Astravas testified that access to CSIS intelligence was significantly reduced while people were still working from home.
Nonetheless, Astravas received a briefing on the mandate from CSIS officials 13 days after the mandate was submitted for approval, and a second briefing in the following weeks. In her testimony Wednesday, Astravas rejected the assertion that she wanted to “slow down” the case because it would drag CSIS into her party’s affairs, calling it “categorically false.”
Although CSIS agents and officials may have been frustrated by the delay, former CSIS director David Vigneault previously told the commission he was not concerned about the mandate’s timeline.
Blair testified Friday that Vigneault never expressed concerns about “delays” — although the former CSIS director informed him of concerns surrounding Chan’s activities months before the warrant was prepared.
“But I understand… it is important that a document you present to the Federal Court judge for approval is complete and contemporaneous with the application. So I understand the concern but I’m not aware of any delays,” Blair said.
“When the matter was brought to my attention, I dealt with it very quickly and without delay, and at no time did the director of CSIS, the deputy minister (of Public Safety) or my chief of staff contact me. expressed concerns about this. question of delay, with the interval to complete this.
The second phase of testimony before the Hogue commission is expected to conclude next week, when senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, including chief of staff Katie Telford, will testify a second time on Tuesday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.
After that, Hogue and his team of lawyers will have less than 11 weeks to write their final report, including recommendations to better protect Canadian democracy against foreign interference.
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