The big Friday bombshell from the Globe and Mail in their continued series of allegations of foreign interference was an op-ed from the primary leaker, who gave a self-serving justification for doing so, insisting that they were tired of the problem of foreign interference going ignored, and that they hoped to ignite a conversation and that they didn’t intend for things to get this ugly. Erm, seriously? You leaked to Bob Fife, and you didn’t think he would torque the absolute life out of it? That seems dangerously naïve for an intelligence official. Even more to the point, their frustration with the pace of work is not justification for violating their oaths to secrecy (and comparing themselves to Jody Wilson-Raybould seems to be particularly ill-considered). There is an attitude of “I know best,” which former senior intelligence official Artur Wilczynski called “narcissistic,” and I did take that tone from the op-ed.
Also the rather loose grasp on the security of information act. “While what I have done may be unlawful”. “May” is doing a lot of work there.
— JMDavis (@JessMarinDavis) March 17, 2023
But the actions of this individual have also eroded trust in our public institutions amongst Canadians and probably amongst our intelligence allies.
— JMDavis (@JessMarinDavis) March 17, 2023
Also, I take issue with “whistleblower” here. I’m gonna go with leaker. Whistleblowers share info that is unlawful, illicit, fraudulent, etc. This person just didn’t like the government’s response to the information.
— JMDavis (@JessMarinDavis) March 17, 2023
Eager to share views with @DavidWCochrane on @PnPCBC about the op-ed in @globeandmail on disclosure of classified docs about foreign interference. This person broke trust with thousands of Canadians who work in intel. Their naïveté has made efforts harder & damaged democracy. pic.twitter.com/ugjlu3lI0K
— Artur Wilczynski (@Arturmaks) March 18, 2023
One of the things I’ve really come to recognise and have been building a series of columns around is that there is a pervasive normalcy bias in our governments at all levels. It’s why provincial governments inadvertently allowed their healthcare systems to collapse. It’s why we are now in a housing crisis nation-wide. It’s why our military was allowed to degrade, and it’s why successive governments of all stripes have not taken foreign interference seriously enough. We disbelieve and downplay threats and warnings because we’ve been sheltered for a century now under the wing of the Americans, and very little bad has happened to us in comparison to most other countries. We got lazy and complacent. That’s hard to shake, but I would say we’ve made more progress in the last five years than we have since the ned of the Cold War. And unfortunately, it’s probably going to take crises to shake us from our complacency (like what is happening in healthcare). Unfortunately, the crisis that this leaker precipitated has likely made the situation worse and not better because it’s now become a partisan battleground.
Speaking of partisan battlegrounds, yesterday we had the prime minister accusing Pierre Poilievre of “ginning up a partisan circus” and trying to take a flamethrower to our institutions in order to win power (not untrue), and Poilievre saying that the intelligence community is in full revolt because of Trudeau (and hey, it turns out it’s largely one narcissistic leaker). Trudeau also defended Johnston against the “horrific” partisan attacks, though Trudeau does deserve a measure of criticism for putting Johnston in this position. Johnston, incidentally, provided a statement saying he was working to finalise the details around his role and the mandate, so it looks like he is going ahead with it, concerns notwithstanding.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Ukrainian forces continue to resist the Russians’ attempt to encircle Bakhmut. While this is happening, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, for his war crimes but most especially for his programme of forcibly relocating Ukrainian children and working to re-educate them and place them with Russian families—a hallmark of a genocide. Meanwhile, Slovakia has now pledged their 13 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine after Poland got the ball rolling.
International Criminal Court issues warrant of arrest for Putin. The historic decision, from which historical responsibility will begin. pic.twitter.com/cUW0WbeGKJ
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 17, 2023
The Russians carried out 4 airstrikes on Avdiivka.
Source: the Office of the President of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/GY638R9ZB0— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) March 17, 2023
We’re working with international partners to detect, correct, and call out the Kremlin’s state-sponsored disinformation about Ukraine.
Read the latest information based on Canadian Forces Intelligence Command analysis. 1/6 pic.twitter.com/J10hnb4Sfv
— Canadian Armed Forces (@CanadianForces) March 15, 2023