Date of Publishing:

Dear Prime Minister,

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) has initiated a review of the production and dissemination of intelligence on foreign interference in the 43rd and 44th Canadian federal elections, including how intelligence was communicated across agencies, departments and other groups in the Government of Canada.

The Right Honourable David Johnston, in his capacity as the Independent Special Rapporteur on Foreign Interference (ISR), noted in his May 23, 2023 report that he was “given access to any Cabinet documents relevant to the foreign interference issues” in the scope of his review.  He further recommended that the government disclose to NSIRA those Cabinet confidences provided to him for his review. The government has accepted this recommendation.

The scope of NSIRA’s review is distinct from the scope of the ISR’s review. In order to ensure the integrity of our review and not limit or influence our evidence base, NSIRA must have access to all documents contained in any class of documents provided, rather than a subset of these documents.

Therefore, NSIRA respectfully requests that all Cabinet confidence documents related to our review be released to us, and that all documents provided during the course of this review be without redaction for Cabinet confidence.

NSIRA recognizes the exceptional nature of this request and appreciates the significance of disclosing the requested documents. We look forward to your assistance in enabling NSIRA to access all requested documents, and to fulfilling the objectives of our independent review.

Yours sincerely,

The Honourable Marie Deschamps, C.C.
Chair, National Security and Intelligence Review Agency