Former intelligence assessors urge Ottawa to boost its own analysis

Former senior Canadian intelligence assessors are calling for more investment in the country's own intelligence assessment capability ahead of the Nov. 5 federal budget, according to The Globe and Mail.

Intelligence assessment is the work of turning raw information from many sources into written analysis for decision-makers. The Privy Council Office, which supports the Prime Minister, runs an Intelligence Assessment Secretariat that carries out domestic and global security assessments. The former assessors want Canada to strengthen that work so it does not depend heavily on outside analysis.

Some of the former assessors are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to set up an independent intelligence-assessment agency. The Globe reported that Canada should look at creating such a body.

Vincent Rigby, who was national security and intelligence adviser to former prime minister Justin Trudeau from 2020 to 2021, is now a professor at McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy. He said Canada can no longer rely on U.S. intelligence assessments of the international security environment and needs its own analysis.

Canada is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The experts urging Ottawa to act say Canada must also build the capacity to understand U.S. intentions.

The government's national security strategy already commits to change. It pledged to increase "the speed and depth of intelligence assessment, particularly all-source intelligence," meaning analysis drawn from several kinds of sources.

A separate CJME report on a study says caution is warranted before Canada creates a foreign spy agency. St. John said Ottawa should create one only if it intends it to be highly effective.