CSIS Takes the Political Stage

CSIS Director’s speech is grounds for convening SECU

A speech by CSIS Director David Vigneault reported by Canadian press Tuesday, February 9, 2021 would suggest that he is willfully ill-informed about China Canadian relations.

The speech was delivered to the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) a Waterloo based think tank that receives major funding from the Government of Canada. CIGI and CSIS are presently engaged in a collaboration on cybersecurity issues.

The CSIS director and CIGI imply that China, having progressed to the status of the second largest economic scientific and technological power in the world, is technologically deficient and actually needs Canadian cyber-technologies. It apparently hasn’t occurred to CSIS-CIGI analysts that it might be the other way around. 

The CSIS Director said, the technologies China needs are largely developed, “within academia in small start-ups, which are attractive targets because they have modest security protections and are more likely to pursue collaborations that can, and sadly are, exploited by other countries” meaning China.

Either the CSIS Director doesn’t know or doesn’t want Canadians to know, that Canada and China signed a bi-lateral treaty on science and technology on January 16, 2007 which was ratified on July 17^th 2008 and is still in force.  

CSIS Vs. PCO

The CSIS Director offered no proof that China has engaged in any joint research with Canadian institutions that falls outside the framework of the treaty. Such proof would be reason for the Privy Council Office (PCO) to consider a breach of the treaty. The CSIS Director’s speech should cause the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) to be convened to ask for proof of CSIS assertions.

The CSIS director is making public speeches that impinge on the functioning of Canadian Government treaties. Is that what CSIS is mandated to do? Canadians understand that to be the function of the elected Minister of Foreign Affairs. Apparently the CSIS Director doesn’t know that.

Is it not fair to ask PM Trudeau and FM Minister Garneau, who is running Canadian foreign affairs, CSIS or the Government of Canada? That is a question the NDP foreign affairs critic, the Greens and the Bloc should also be asking.

A SIRC-SECU  inquiry might also help to explain why Canada no longer produces its own vaccines and spends hundreds of millions on foreign supplies including purchasing supplies of PPE equipment from China. Such a hearing might put to rest the CSIS accusation that the PRC seeks or needs Canada’s research in pharmaceuticals and health.

The UN and WHO have provided ample evidence of the high level of PRC’s cooperation and compliance in the global effort to contain and eradicate the Corona virus.

The proprietary assets, patents, technical expertise, and research that CSIS asserts China seeks to acquire by stealth is being routinely exchanged by all reputable science and technical agencies and much of it is available on line. That is how science progresses as a joint international collaboration among scientists from all nations. That truth comes as a surprise to the CSIS director who seems to believe that science is exclusively a western phenomenon.

The CSIS Director is fond of warning Canadians about “foreign state actors” interfering in Canadian politics. The Director’s speech came hours after newly elected US President Joe Biden’s February 4^th speech published on the US Canadian embassy website.

“As I said in my inaugural address, we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s.  American leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism, including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United States and the determination of Russia to damage and disrupt our democracy.”

Stage Managed

Right on cue the CSIS Director delivered his April 9^th speech to the CIGI.

CSIS and the CIGI seem to consider China’s presence in global affairs as not only sinister but illegitimate and Canada’s without blemish and legitimate.

Canada is a member of the UN and its agencies, the IMF, World Bank, WTO, OECD. So is China.

Canada is a signatory to the aforementioned organizations which have mandates that can be read by anyone interested. So is China.

Both countries have functionaries working in these organizations whose bios and curricula vitae can be read on line.

Consider the position occupied by the People’s Republic of China and its 1.4 billion citizens in today’s world.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a state member of the World Bank having joined in 1945. It is now the second largest global economy. Its engagement with the World Bank can be read here.

The PRC is a permanent member of the IMF and participates in the work of all of its agencies which can be read here.

The PRC is a non-member participant with an agreed working relationship with the OECD which can be read here.

The PRC is a member of the WTO having joined in 2001 and its engagement at the WTO can be read here.

The PRC is a founding member of the UN and permanent member of the Security Council. The PRC participates in all its agencies and programs which can be read here.

The PRC has diplomatic relations with 178 countries.

Canada officially recognized China on 13 October 1970 and suspended diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. In the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 Canada supported the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the successor state of the Republic of China.

On the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of Canada-China recognition, then Foreign Minister Phillipe Champagne said:

“The bedrock of our relations—in the beginning and as it is now—remains the people of Canada and China. Together, we share long-standing connections that took root well before the establishment of diplomatic relations. These connections and the extraordinary contributions of Canadians of Chinese origin to Canada will outlive political cycles and continue to bring diversity and depth to our relationship for decades to come.”

The CSIS federal budget for 2021 will come in around $650 million.

It would be better spent on the Canadian health care system and its overworked health care workers.