Former intelligence adviser fears Trump may leverage intel sharing against Canada

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Alex Brandon

OTTAWA — A former top intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he fears the U.S. might put intelligence sharing on the table in talks about the state of Canada’s defence spending.

Vincent Rigby said he worries about intelligence being used as a negotiating tool as the Donald Trump White house seeks to extract gains from Canada.

“We hear so much about defense spending and two per cent, and what the U.S. may or may not do if we don’t step up to plate,” Rigby told a crowd at a Canada Global Affairs Institute conference Wednesday afternoon. “I’m afraid at one point, intelligence is going to be used as a negotiating tool.”

President Trump and other U.S. lawmakers have been sharply critical of Canada’s failure to meet its NATO commitment of spending the equivalent of two per cent of its GDP on defence.

Canada has fallen behind the pack within the security alliance and currently spends about 1.37 per cent of GDP on defence. Trudeau has pledged to meet the target by 2032.

Rigby was Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser during the early years of the pandemic.

He said the Trump administration could even decide to weaponize access to American intelligence over some other irritant as Trump plays rough with traditional allies.

“Some people scoff at that, but I know from my own experience that it wasn’t so much a veiled threat last time that he was in, and this issue was raised on one or two occasions,” Rigby said of the first Trump White House. “I won’t get into the specifics of it, but it’s a serious threat and we have to think about it.”

Last year, then-public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc told the public inquiry into foreign interference that such shared intelligence is vital to anti-terrorism investigations and protecting Canada’s security.

“I was struck when I became minister of public safety the extent to which we are net importers of intelligence information,” he said on Feb. 2, 2024.

Canada benefits from national intelligence as part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance of countries, which includes Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the U.S.

Ottawa frequently relies on information from allies with massive, built-up foreign intelligence systems, such as Britain’s MI6 and the American CIA.

“The Five Eyes has provided us with very, very good information at very little cost,” said Stephanie Carvin, associate professor of international affairs at Carleton University. “There is no question that Canada is an intelligence consumer more than it is a producer. That’s not to say that what we produce isn’t useful or relevant.”

Ten years ago, southwestern Ontario resident Aaron Driver posted a video online saying he was a suicide bomber planning an attack. The FBI passed on information about the video and Canadian authorities intervened to stop him.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press