Canada should rethink relationship with U.S. as democratic 'backsliding' worsens: security experts
Former national security advisers, CSIS directors say U.S. could become a 'source of threat and instability'
By Catharine Tunney · CBC News · Posted: May 24, 2022
Canada's intelligence community will have to grapple with the growing influence of anti-democratic forces in the United States — including the threat posed by conservative media outlets like Fox News — says a new report from a task force of intelligence experts.
"The United States is and will remain our closest ally, but it could also become a source of threat and instability," says a newly published report written by a task force of former national security advisers, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) directors, ex-deputy ministers, former ambassadors and academics. Members of the group have advised both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper.
The authors — some of whom had access to Canada's most prized secrets and briefed cabinet on emerging threats — say Canada has become complacent in its national security strategies and is not prepared to tackle threats like Russian and Chinese espionage, the "democratic backsliding" in the United States, a rise in cyberattacks and climate change.
"We believe that the threats are quite serious at the moment, that they do impact Canada," said report co-author Vincent Rigby, who until a few months ago served as the national security adviser to Trudeau. "We don't want it to take a crisis for [the] government of Canada to wake up." The report he helped write says that one area in need of a policy pivot is Canada's relationship with the United States… The conversation with the U.S. doesn't have to be uncomfortable but it does need to happen, said Rigby.
More here
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-security-us-fox-news-threat-report-1.6459660