CSIS Backtracks On Earlier Claim Some Canadian Politicians Controlled By Foreign Government

Canada’s senior spy is backtracking on remarks that he’s working to oust politicians under control of foreign governments.

In a statement, Richard Fadden said foreign interference is common in many countries around the world and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has been investigating such threats for decades.

Fadden, who is the director of CSIS, had said in a television interview that he had informed the Privy Council about provincial cabinet ministers and municipal politicians who’d grown too close to unnamed foreign governments.

But he took back those remarks Wednesday afternoon, in a statement sent out in the aftermath of an earthquake in Ottawa.

Fadden said he has “not apprised the Privy Council Office of the cases…mentioned in the interview on CBC.”

And he added that “At this point, CSIS has not deemed the cases to be of sufficient concern to bring them to the attention of provincial authorities.”