Former public safety minister Bill Blair said he never received some top secret documents destined for his desk. It also included an administrative memo issued by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) regarding China’s efforts to target two Canadian members of parliament.
Testifying before the Foreign Interference Inquiry on Friday, Blair also claimed he had no knowledge of the foreign interference search warrant application until CSIS signed it 54 days after it was first requested.
Mr Blair told the inquiry: “You can’t endorse something you don’t know anything about.” “So when this issue was brought to my attention, which is always my practice and in all cases more than customary, I dealt with it very quickly.”
Prime Minister Blair said he was not surprised when he was presented with the warrant as he had been briefed on the investigation that led to the warrant application months earlier.
The names of the individuals targeted by the warrants were not mentioned at the investigative hearing, but former Ontario MP Michael Chan released a statement earlier this week identifying himself as the subject of the warrants. did.
Chan said CSIS obtained a warrant alleging that Don Valley North orchestrated the removal of former Liberal MP Gen Tan as a candidate for the party in the Toronto area. He said CSIS has been monitoring him for 14 years and has found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Someone in government to protect Liberal members from the fact that the warrant targeted a Canadian politician and also included a list of third parties whose communications with that politician could be intercepted. There is widespread speculation that the execution of the warrant may have been delayed.
Zita Astravas, Prime Minister Blair’s former chief of staff, told the inquiry earlier in the week that she was briefed on the warrant 13 days after CSIS sent it to security, and that she had been briefed on the warrant by a third party, also known as the Van Wienan List. He said he was re-explained about the list. She said she could not explain the delay in receiving the warrant for Mr Blair between the date she was briefed and the date Mr Blair signed the warrant.
Giving evidence ahead of Friday’s cross-examination, Prime Minister Blair repeatedly refused to answer questions about whose names were on the list of third parties. He also declined to say whether the list included the names of MPs, ministers or acquaintances.
Mr Blair, a former police officer, insisted that political considerations did not influence his handling of the warrants and that he had no conflict of interest in approving the warrants he signed as Minister of Public Safety.
Prime Minister Blair said CSIS, his chief of staff and deputy ministers had not raised any concerns about the delay in signing the warrant, and there was no question that he had not signed the warrant authorization.
Former deputy public safety minister Rob Stewart told the inquiry that briefing materials for Mr Blair had continued throughout the pandemic and had been sent to his office, but that Mr Blair had never received a binder of them. He testified that he received very few documents.
He said he first learned in the news that Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family had been the target of Chinese foreign interference. Kenny Chewy MP in 2021, two years after CSIS drafted a memo on proposed defense briefings for Chong and Conservative MPs. Prime Minister Blair said he had not received the memo.
More details later…
