Welcome to Inside Policy Talks, the flagship podcast of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
This episode, hosted by Alex Dalziel, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, explores intelligence in Canadian policy-making with Michelle Tessier, a former Deputy Director of Operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The discussion highlights challenges in developing an “intelligence culture,” integrating intelligence into decision-making, and intelligence sharing outside the federal government.
Key Takeaways
1. Intelligence and its Purpose
Intelligence is distinct from evidence due to its purpose: informing decision-making rather than serving as material for legal prosecution. It often involves analyzed information gathered to address national security threats, collected under different thresholds than evidence for court use, with the intention to provide insights for policy and security decisions. This fundamental distinction shapes the methods and goals of intelligence agencies.
2. Establishing an Intelligence Culture
Canada’s government does not have a developed intelligence culture. Decision-makers, including senior officials, often lack a full understanding of how intelligence works and its value in policy-making, which weakens its integration into decision-making. Additionally, Canadian society, shaped by a relatively peaceful history, tends to deprioritize national security, leading to less demand for intelligence-driven governance. This dual gap in understanding and prioritization has slowed the development of a robust intelligence culture.
Tessier also pointed to areas where the intelligence community could improve. Historically, CSIS was insular, focusing more on gathering information than engaging decision-makers. Limited outreach and a lack of accessible, understandable intelligence products further hindered trust-building efforts. Tessier emphasized that making intelligence actionable and understandable for busy decision-makers is key to fostering a stronger intelligence culture, noting, “It’s really important to get that feedback from whoever is receiving the intelligence and to assess the quality… making intelligence accessible and understandable is a critical part of fostering an intelligence culture.”
3. Information Sharing and Transparency
CSIS’s ability to collaborate with municipal and provincial governments, the private sector, and academia is expanding. New laws, including Bill C-70, have made it easier for CSIS to share classified intelligence more widely, which is critical for addressing modern threats like cyberattacks.
4. Balancing Secrecy and the Disclosure of Intelligence
There are limits to what CSIS can share publicly, in order to protect its human sources and methods. Human intelligence (HUMINT) is uniquely valuable because it can provide insights into what individuals are really thinking and planning—information that technology often cannot reveal. At the same time, she stressed the importance of safeguarding the trust and safety of the sources who take significant personal risks. As she put it, “The one thing that is so important for an intelligence service is to protect those human sources… who are risking their lives to protect Canadians.” Balancing operational security with the need to share meaningful insights remains a critical challenge.
5. Future Directions
Tessier highlighted the importance of leveraging modern technology and software. Tools such as AI and data analytics not only provide new insights but also help streamline the dissemination of intelligence to decision-makers. She also pointed to the recent requirement for a five-year review of the CSIS Act as an essential step toward ensuring that Canada’s intelligence framework stays current with global and technological developments.
