The opinions of the people in government and the views of the general public have changed.
I used the following English expression.
“They had a certain measure of influence”.
My comments were somewhat overblown. It was inferred that I was saying that foreign powers were controlling public servants and politicians, but that was not the case.
It has generally been recognized that my comments were truthful and that the situation must be taken seriously. Over the past few years, a number of your colleagues, both former and current, have told me that I was right and that more honesty should have been shown at the time.
Agencies like CSIS are now allocating more resources to that type of threat. However, it is more difficult to detect it, contrary to terrorist activities. There is no clear evidence in this kind of a situation. So I sympathize somewhat with my former CSIS colleagues. With the help of our allies, we can do something to counter that kind of foreign influence, whether it is coming from China or from another country.
The problem in Canada is that the general public has trouble accepting that our country is under threat. In North America, we feel well protected by the three oceans and by the United States. A crisis sometimes needs to occur for people to admit that there really is a problem. In this kind of a context, the scope of public security agencies' actions is somewhat limited.