OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tapped Greta Bossenmaier as his new national security and intelligence adviser.
Bossenmaier, who is currently the chief of Canada’s Communications Security Establishment, will replace Trudeau’s current adviser Daniel Jean, as of May 23, 2018.
She will be coming into the role as national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister after heading up the CSE since 2015. Bossenmaier started as a defence scientist in 1984, and spent some time at the UN in Switzerland before ascending to several senior positons in the federal government, including deputy minister of the Afghanistan task force.
Jean is retiring after a 35-year tenure in the public service, the tail end of which was spent as a central figure in the heated political story of Trudeau’s troubled trip to India. Jean, in a background briefing to reporters, suggested that rogue elements in the Indian government, related to Sikh separatism, may have tried to damage the federal government.
During rare public committee testimony last month, Jean defended his decision to brief reporters as an effort to counter "co-ordinated misinformation" he worried was damaging to the Canadian government. He denied ever suggesting a conspiracy theory or squarely placing blame on the Indian government. He said there was orchestrated information being disseminated, not directly from the Indian government, but by private citizens or possibly members of the government acting without authority.
