Today’s National Post quotes Public Safety Minister Vic Toews dismissing the ruckus over CSIS boss Richard Fadden’s warning earlier this summer about foreign attempts to influence the Canadian political system (see our blog posts here, here and earlier ). “There’s nothing remarkable about the fact that governments may seek to influence politicians or senior bureaucrats,” Toews said Monday. “I find it astounding that this would be a news story” and added that he’s been reading it in the “pages of newspapers across this country for the past 20 or 30 years.”
Strange that Fadden’s critics missed those stories. Also a bit odd that Toews didn’t speak up more forcefully when those critics were demanding Fadden’s resignation. Unless he didn’t want to face the followup question that, if the government knows all about it, might they at some point share with us their efforts to combat it?
