Top PM Advisers Say They Had No Part in Delayed Surveillance Warrant on Ontario Politician

Top advisers in the Prime Minister’s Office were questioned about their knowledge of a delayed surveillance warrant on an Ontario politician and denied any involvement in the matter as they testified at the Foreign Interference Commission. “None of us in the Prime Minister’s Office are involved in anything to do with warrant processes or to do with warrants,” the prime minister’s chief of staff Katie Telford said on Oct. 15. Telford was testifying before the inquiry alongside her deputy Brian Clow and Brian Travers, the senior global affairs adviser in the prime minister’s office (PMO). The commission was told it took nearly two months for then-Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to approve a particular warrant submitted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the spring of 2021. His then-chief of staff Zita Astravas had not provided the warrant for Blair to sign for a period of 50 days....