{"id":453120,"date":"2026-02-04T10:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453120\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T10:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T10:52:22","slug":"canada-expects-u-s-to-stay-out-of-domestic-affairs-national-security-official-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453120\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada expects U.S. to stay out of domestic affairs: national security official – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s top security official says Ottawa expects the United States administration to stay out of Canada\u2019s domestic politics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When asked Tuesday if she viewed the U.S. as a potential threat to Canadian democracy, National Security and Intelligence Advisor Nathalie Drouin said the federal government is on guard against any threat to Canadian democracy, including the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada has expectations with all countries, including the United States \u2026 (that) there should be no interference in our domestic affairs,\u201d Drouin told a House of Commons committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have to look at the situation in an agnostic way; no country should be interfering in our domestic affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her comments come after U.S. officials reportedly met with Alberta separatist campaigners, and after a member of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s cabinet made public comments that appeared to encourage the independence movement.<\/p>\n

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Drouin was speaking to a Commons committee investigating foreign interference in Canadian elections \u2014 a conversation that usually focuses on\u00a0 threat actors like China, India, Russia and Iran, which have attempted to covertly meddle in Canadian politics.<\/p>\n

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But Drouin\u2019s answer suggests that the Trump administration is being viewed as a potential threat, even while remaining Canada\u2019s most important economic and security partner.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 23, Trump\u2019s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, made public comments about the fledgling independence movement in Alberta, and suggested the province would make a \u201cnatural partner\u201d for the U.S.<\/p>\n

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The following week, media reports revealed separatist leaders met with unnamed U.S. Treasury Department officials to discuss possible support for the independence movement, which they hope will include a $500 billion credit facility in the event that the province passes an independence referendum, according to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlberta has a wealth of natural resources, but (Ottawa) won\u2019t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific,\u201d Bessent told the right-wing American media outlet Real America\u2019s Voice, failing to mention the recent agreement between Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on pipelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a rumour they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not \u2026 People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Responding to Bessent\u2019s comments last week, Carney told reporters he expects \u201cthe U.S. administration to respect Canadian sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A senior federal official, speaking to Global News on the condition they not be named, said Bessent\u2019s comments were taken as \u201cinfluence\u201d rather than \u201cinterference\u201d and that there is \u201ca big difference\u201d between the two.<\/p>\n

The official cited former French president Charles de Gaulle\u2019s 1967 proclamation, \u201cVivre le Qu\u00e9bec libre,\u201d which was viewed as support for the Qu\u00e9bec separatists\u2019 cause.<\/p>\n

As a general rule, the official said, Canada doesn\u2019t comment on other countries\u2019 domestic political debates, and Ottawa expects the same treatment from foreign powers.<\/p>\n

Leah West, an associate professor at Carleton University and a former Department of Justice national security lawyer, agreed the reported meetings between U.S. officials and Alberta separatist leaders don\u2019t constitute foreign interference.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, the actions of the U.S. in this case could be described as detrimental to Canadian interests, but it\u2019s not clandestine or covert. They weren\u2019t meeting secretly under a bridge,\u201d West said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t meet the legal threshold (of interference) \u2026 But that doesn\u2019t mean that it doesn\u2019t test the idea of America\u2019s lack of respect of Canadian sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s top security official says Ottawa expects the United States administration to stay out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,164630,1376,44,714],"class_list":["post-453120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-u-s-relations","tag-donald-trump","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}