Delay in ministerial approval of spy warrant didn’t seem exceptional: former official

OTTAWA — A former deputy minister of public safety says nothing struck him as “particularly exceptional” in early 2021 about a weeks-long delay in ministerial approval of a spy service warrant.

Rob Stewart told a public inquiry Tuesday that in retrospect, general tracking of Canadian Security Intelligence Service warrant applications could have been better.

But Stewart, the department’s deputy minister from late 2019 to October 2022, said things often took time to get done, notably during the disruptive period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would have treated it as, by and large … a function of the circumstances, which were challenging.”

The inquiry into foreign interference has heard that it took as long as 54 days for the CSIS warrant application to be approved by Bill Blair, public safety minister at the time.

The average turnaround time for such applications is four to 10 days.

Michelle Tessier, CSIS deputy director of operations at the time, has told the inquiry there was frustration with the delay, though no concern about interference of any sort or pushback from the minister’s office.

Blair has said that he signed off on the warrant soon after it was brought to his attention.

Commission counsel asked Stewart on Tuesday about the time delay in getting the warrant signed, wondering whether he had brought it to the attention of Blair’s chief of staff.

Stewart said it would have been “on the upper part of a list of action items that we were seeking from the minister,” given the importance of warrants.

“I don’t have a specific memory of flagging this warrant. I would have just flagged every warrant.”

Stewart says he did not raise the matter with Blair himself, in part because they would typically speak during the pandemic on a non-secure telephone line.

A newly released summary of Stewart’s earlier, closed-door inquiry testimony indicates he said “it would have taken CSIS some time to get the minister and his staff comfortable with this particular warrant.”

“Mr. Stewart surmised that questions would probably have been asked about certain processes related to the execution of the warrant,” the summary says.

Gib van Ert, a lawyer for Conservative MP Michael Chong, pressed Stewart during cross-examination Tuesday about the warrant delay.

Stewart said he could not explain the time taken, nor was he able to discuss the substance of the warrant.

Zita Astravas, Blair’s chief of staff in 2021, is set to appear Wednesday at the inquiry.

Blair, now defence minister, is slated to testify on Friday.

Shawn Tupper, who became deputy minister of public safety in late 2022, said that as a result of a new process, “we track this stuff a little bit more aggressively now than perhaps we used to.”

“So we certainly have a tracking system that ensures a document is processed. If it’s sitting, we will know that, and we will be able to find out why it is sitting,” Tupper said.

CSIS might still have its own discussion with the minister, he added.

“But certainly, I think, between CSIS and ourselves, we have a co-ordinated process now that ensures that we have a higher degree of awareness of the status of a given warrant.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press