LIVE UPDATES: CSIS director recalled after PMO, Trudeau contradict earlier testimony
David Vigneault, director of Canada's spy agency, is being recalled for further testimony after information provided to the inquiry by the PMO and Trudeau contradicted Vigneault's previous testimony.
Despite the public hearings being scheduled to conclude with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, CSIS Director David Vigneault is being recalled before the Foreign Interference Commission for a second round of testimony.
Vigneault is being brought back to provide more insight after officials within the Prime Minister's Office and Trudeau himself contradicted the CSIS director's previous testimony.
A document provided to the commission, sent from CSIS to the PMO and released to the inquiry in the dead of night following Vigneault's initial testimony, said the Chinese Communist Party “clandestinely and deceptively” interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Staff within the PMO and Trudeau both claimed the prime minister was not briefed on the matter.
Follow along with Vigneault's testimony with Sheila Gunn Reid on X or on the page below:
This morning, CSIS Director David Vigneault is being called to retestify at the foreign interference commission.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
A February 2023 CSIS briefing document to the PMO, released after Vigneault's testimony in the dead of night, said Chinese government "clandestinely and deceptively"…
WOW, did Trudeau and Telford lie to the Foreign Interference Commission?
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
Trudeau and his senior PMO staff claimed to the commission that the CSIS director DID NOT inform them that China was deceptively and clandestinely interfering in Canada's elections.
CSIS director David… pic.twitter.com/De16vRrDem
It's kind of funny. CSIS director David Vigneault details all the ways he confers information to the PMO and Trudeau, given that Trudeau prefers to avoid reading important things. pic.twitter.com/wUaFokQGsP
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
A lawyer for the CPC, Nando de Luca, asks the CSIS director about a security-cleared Liberal official tipping off Han Dong about an investigation into foreign interference.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
He is not allowed to ask his questions because of the narrow scope of CSIS director David Vigneault's… pic.twitter.com/znjTC7reoa
Lawyer for the CPC, Nando de Luca, asks CSIS director David Vigneault what he told senior bureaucrats, the PMO, and Trudeau about PRC fundraising in former CPC MP Kenny Chiu's riding.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
He cannot answer. Sounds like there is an open investigation. pic.twitter.com/rZv6thLcB3
CSIS director Vigneault tells Gib van Ert, lawyer for Michael Chong, that he relayed CSIS conclusions to Trudeau that Canada lags well behind the rest of our Five-Eyes allies when dealing with foreign interference
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
And that foreign actors meddling in Canadian elections have low… pic.twitter.com/l35j6LTiCv
That's it. Vigneault is done testifying.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 12, 2024
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