Vincent Rigby, who served as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security adviser from 2020 to 2021, told MPs Thursday that he fears "important and actionable" intelligence was not always pursued during his tenure.
Rigby told a parliamentary committee Thursday morning that he read between 5,000 and 7,000 intelligence reports during his 18 months in the job.
"But we did not have a formal system to flag important pieces of intelligence. What we had was ad-hoc and it was inconsistent," he told MPs studying allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian politics.
"I was concerned that important and actionable intelligence was not being appropriately flagged or followed up."
Rigby said that's why, after he left the public service, he helped write a report calling on the Canadian government to "wake up" and address what he called "systemic weaknesses in our national security system."
"I was once part of that system and I accept my share of responsibility for those failings. But my point is this — even before the current storm over foreign interference, informed commentators were stating that our national security system was in peril," he told MPs Thursday.
WATCH | Rigby issues warning about elevating all foreign interference intelligence to MPs
PM's ex-security adviser issues warning about elevating all foreign interference intelligence to MPs
"A highly politicized debate over one specific area of intelligence, however important, seemingly assigned at assigning individual blame, is not the solution."
The procedure and House affairs committee has been studying an alleged Beijing plot to amass information on the family of Conservative MP Michael Chong in retaliation for his efforts to recognize the persecution of Uyghurs as genocide.
'Don't wait for the crisis to happen'
The prime minister, the current national security and intelligence adviser and other cabinet ministers have all said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) never briefed them on the Chong matter, and that they only learned about it from reports in the Globe and Mail.
Rigby's testimony comes not long after the release of foreign interference special rapporteur David Johnston's first report, which pointed to serious issues with the way the government manages intelligence.
Johnston's investigation found that CSIS sent an "issues management note" to then-public safety minister Bill Blair, his chief of staff and his deputy minister in May of 2021. He said the note warned of "intelligence that the [People's Republic of China] intended to target Mr. Chong, another MP, and their family in China (if any)."
"The director determined this was not information the minister needed to know," Blair said.
Rigby said the Chong memo was produced after he retired, but he was aware of problems with the way intelligence is shared in government.
"I am not surprised that this intelligence was not raised to the political level," Rigby said. "This is where the system is particularly weak."
Rigby said he helped create a deputy minister intelligence committee to put "a greater premium on operational level intelligence" but said it was a "work in progress" when he left the office.
He recommended that Canada follow the example of its Five Eye allies and set up a cabinet committee on national security. The prime minister should chair it and the committee should meet regularly, he said.
"Don't wait for the crisis to happen," he said.
"With Russia, with China, with pandemics, with climate change, all of these are national security concerns. To me, it is just so logical to create that kind of a body at this time in our history."
He also suggested it's time to rethink the position of national security intelligence adviser.
"The national security and intelligence adviser does not have a lot of hard authority in terms of coordinating
this security and intelligence community. There is a lot of cajoling, there's a lot of persuasion," he told reporters afterwards.
"I think that you have to think about possibly a legislative authority for the NSIA."