In a rare public appearance, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault said Feb. 9 that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to undermine Canada by stealing secrets and eliminating critical voices about Beijing‘s policies.
Vigneault was invited to attend a seminar on “Cybersecurity, National Security, Economic Prosperity and Canada’s Future” at the Canadian Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), a Waterloo think tank, on Tuesday. In his speech, he said, “There is a lot of uncertainty in our world today, and a lot of things are changing at such a rapid pace. There is no doubt that this will continue into the foreseeable future.” According to him, “The fluid and rapidly changing environment created by the New Coronavirus (CCMV) pandemic has created a ripe environment for threat actors seeking to cause harm or promote their own interests. With many Canadians working from Home, threat actors have more opportunities to engage in malicious online activity.”
Vigneault spoke of how “as the world becomes smaller and more competitive, it is natural for countries to seek every advantage to position themselves as leaders in the global economy. As a result of this desire to compete, hostile state actors seek to use all elements of state power to further their national interests. While this is not a new phenomenon, it accelerated during the global pandemic of the Epidemic and will continue to do so as we attempt to emerge from this event that has devastated national economies.” He said, “From a national security perspective, the threat of all forms of hostile activity by state actors poses a significant threat to Canada’s prosperity and sovereignty.”
According to Vigneault, “Espionage, for example, can have a profound impact on the security of our research and development, and ultimately on the success of our companies. By undermining our ability to innovate and commercialize research, espionage leads to job losses and reduced economic growth.” He said, “Foreign interference, on the other hand, seeks to undermine our institutions and threaten our democratic system and our citizens. Most importantly, such activities erode our sovereignty and undermine our social norms.” He noted that “this ‘two birds with one stone’ approach has collectively contributed to a complex environment fraught with other threats.”
Vigneault said, “While extremist violence remains a constant threat to our security and a key concern for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the greatest strategic threat to Canada’s national security comes from hostile foreign activity. While our focus is on protecting our citizens, we have witnessed hostile nations using all elements of their state apparatus to advance their national interests at the expense of Canada.” He said, “Historically, spies have focused on obtaining Canadian political, military and diplomatic secrets. While these secrets remain attractive, today our adversaries are more focused on intellectual property and advanced research in the computer systems of small start-ups, corporate boards or university labs across the country.”
Vigneault said, “For example, in 2020, Global TV sources revealed that Zhenhua Data, which primarily serves the Communist Party’s military and intelligence services, had been collecting sensitive data on 2.4 million individuals for several years. About 20 percent of this data is not publicly available and was likely obtained through cyber espionage.” He emphasized that “Canadian companies, in virtually every sector of our economy, have been targeted. These companies have been affected and suffered losses from both man-made and cyber threats. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has observed sustained and sophisticated state-sponsored threat activity for many years, and we continue to see an increase in the frequency and sophistication of this threat activity. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is actively investigating this activity on a daily basis, from coast to coast and abroad.”
According to Vigneault, “In particular, I would like to note that Canada faces particularly serious threat activity in the biopharmaceutical and health sectors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, marine technology and the aerospace sector.” He said, “Our adversaries do not play by globally accepted rules. Some countries are not responding to Canada’s openness and support for a level playing field, while others are aggressively advancing their own economic, intelligence and military national interests at our expense. This is no longer traditional private commerce, but state capitalism.” He said, “It’s state capitalism, and it creates a skewed playing field that consistently puts our private sector at a disadvantage.”
Vigneault said, “Employees, former employees, students, professors, contractors, business partners or any individual with inside knowledge of, or access to, organizational systems can be targeted by hostile intelligence services to steal sensitive information, intentionally or unintentionally. Insiders, at the behest of threat actors, can hack into systems and cause damage, or open back doors to allow access from across the street or across the ocean. They can just steal the information and take it out the door on a USB stick.” He said, “It’s no secret that our biggest concern is the actions of governments like Russia and the Chinese Communist Party. But we also shouldn’t ignore the development of threat activity that could come from anywhere in the world.”
Vigneault said, “China is a major player on the world stage and a partner of Canada in a number of important areas. For decades, Canada and Canadians have benefited from relationships with Chinese researchers, scholars, artists, business people and others; our cultural mosaic is richer because Chinese Canadians are present across Canada, in large cities and small towns, in every corner of this country.” He stressed that “to be clear, the threat does not come from the Chinese people, but from the Chinese government, which pursues a strategy of geopolitical dominance on all fronts – economic, technological, political and military – and uses all elements of state power to carry out activities that directly threaten our national security and sovereignty. We must all strengthen our defenses.”
Later, addressing the threat of foreign intervention, Vigneault said, “Foreign interference has always existed in Canada, but it has increased in size, speed, scope and impact due to globalization and technology. Increasingly, we are seeing social media used to spread disinformation or conduct influence campaigns designed to confuse or divide public opinion, interfere with healthy public debate and political discourse, and ultimately create social tensions.” He said, “Foreign targeting of politicians, political parties and the electoral process to covertly influence public policy and public opinion in Canada, and ultimately undermine our democracy and democratic processes, is of the utmost concern. Our electoral system has proven to be resilient, but we must also work to maintain that resilience. Vigilance is the best defense.”
According to Vigneault, “Some foreign countries take hostile actions, often threatening and intimidating individuals in Canada to instill fear, silence dissent and put pressure on political opponents. A notable example is the Chinese government’s global covert operation, known as ‘Operation Fox Hunt,’ which claims to target corruption but is also believed to be used to target and silence political dissidents.” He said, “Those who are threatened often lack the resources to protect themselves or are unaware that they can report these activities to Canadian authorities, including us. Moreover, these activities differ from the norms of diplomatic activity in that they cross the line and attempt to undermine our democratic process or threaten our citizens in a covert and clandestine manner.”
Vigneault said, “Today, I feel compelled to update you on the threat environment because these changes are so important. The world has changed significantly, and the threat is changing rapidly.” According to him, “We need to ensure that the Security Intelligence Agency continues to evolve to be able to meet the challenges of the much more complex environment that surrounds us. Threats today manifest themselves much differently than they did when the SIS Act was enacted in 1984.”
Vigneault said, “An act more suited to Cold War-era threats has greatly hindered our ability to use modern tools and assess data and information. We need laws that enable these types of data-driven investigations that are carefully constructed to reflect the values we share in our democracy, including ensuring strong protections for privacy.”
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