A vehicle passes a sign outside the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) headquarters in Ottawa November 5, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
Canada is still working closely with the United States when it comes to intelligence, despite its tense trade relationship with its southern neighbour, according to a senior official with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
CSIS Assistant Director Paul Lynd told MPs during his testimony before the House of Commons foreign affairs committee that Canada and the United States have been partners “for decades” and that the two countries’ intelligence departments are still working in unison.
“Despite some of the unpredictable behaviour, I’d say, at the political level at this time, at the intelligence department level we still work lockstep and hand-in-hand with each other, and it’s in our interest to do so on both sides,” Lynd said.
He was answering a question by Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif about what the intelligence agency’s degree of collaboration with the United States looks like now compared to before U.S. President Donald Trump took office roughly a year ago.
Lynd, an assistant deputy minister at CSIS, oversees the agency’s collection activities and operations both in Canada and abroad. He was appearing before the committee as it conducts a study on Canada’s Arctic strategy.
Tory MP Michael Chong said the U.S. administration is using political rhetoric that “threatens the sovereignty of Arctic states, including the Kingdom of Denmark and Canada.” However, he said, based on Lynd’s testimony, he concluded that the political rhetoric is “not percolating down into the U.S. intelligence community” that CSIS works with.
“In other words, you’re not siloing them in terms of collaborating on Five Eyes intelligence with respect to Arctic security,” Chong said.
That is correct,” Lynd responded, adding that CSIS is still working “closely with our intelligence partners in the areas we’re aligned.”
Similar comments on intelligence cooperation between Canada and the United States have been made at a ministerial level. Defence Minister David McGuinty said last November that Canada and the United States continue to cooperate on defence, security, and intelligence.
“In fact, in my six or seven months in this job, what I’ve concluded is that there is no daylight between us,” McGuinty said. The two countries share intelligence and equipment, have integrated supply chains, and are “working together on different equipment,” he added.
“We’re in lockstep on so many fronts. That’s a positive and important thing for us going forward.”
Canada–US Tension
The comments about intelligence cooperation come amid strained trade relations between Canada and the United States, which broke down after Ontario aired an anti-tariff TV advertisement in the United States last October.
Tensions between Prime Minister Mark Carney and the U.S. president have since grown after the two leaders criticized each other’s policies in their public speeches at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
In his speech on Jan. 20, Carney criticized the U.S. administration’s desire to take over Greenland and called on countries not to comply with unspecified “great powers.” In Trump’s speech on Jan. 21, he said that Carney “wasn’t so grateful” toward the United States and that Canada “lives because of the United States.”
Canada–U.S. tensions have continued in recent weeks, with Trump announcing on Feb. 9 that he would not allow the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, to open unless the United States received compensation. Trump added that the agreement did not benefit the United States as Canada would own both sides of the bridge and U.S. steel and workers were not used in its construction.
Carney said a day later that he spoke with Trump about the bridge and explained that Canada paid $4 billion for its construction, the ownership is shared between Canada and Michigan, and both Canada and U.S. steel and workers have been used in its construction. He said the situation “will be resolved.”
Meanwhile, other top officials have indicated they still value Canada’s relationship with the United States. While Ottawa is still reviewing the purchase of F-35 fighter jets, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan backed the purchase of additional F-35s in June last year, saying Ottawa should work together with Washington on missile defence.
Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.