CSIS director outlines security threats posed by Russia, China, Iran, India

The head of Canada’s intelligence service described his fight against the national security challenges posed by China, Russia, Iran and India on Thursday in his first public speech on the threats facing the country.

The normally guarded director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Dan Rogers, named the four countries as he catalogued the espionage and transnational repression efforts of Canada’s adversaries.

Russia has been spying on the government and private sector in the Arctic, trying to send intelligence officers to Canada and procuring goods in the country for its war in Ukraine, he said in his first annual speech.

“Illicit Russian procurement networks seek to illegally acquire Canadian goods and technologies, which they move to Russia through a complex series of front companies based around the world,” Rogers said, adding those goods are used to support Russian militar efforts in “Ukraine and elsewhere.”

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Driving extremism are “eroding social cohesion, increasing polarization, and significant global events,” he said, adding that radicalization is often happening online, without direction.

There have been 20 violent extremist attacks in Canada since 2014, resulting in 29 deaths, he said. At the same time, CSIS has disrupted two dozen “violent extremist actions” since 2022.

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