’Explosive stuff’

The parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs has rebuked the CSIS chief over those allegations of foreign interference in Canadian politics and Mr. Fadden is now due to appear before the public safety committee next Monday. Wesley Wark, meanwhile, demands a mea culpa

This is explosive stuff, and it has now blown up in Fadden’s face. The CSIS director should never have gone public with this story in the first place.

To do so endangers the reputation of CSIS, and risks the politicization of the service. No intelligence agency in a democracy can be allowed to be used to make accusations about politicians in office. If such accusations have to be made, they have to be based on credible evidence, exhaustively reviewed, and they have to be made by government ministers or the prime minister.