The Canadian official who oversees the nation's spy agencies said Ottawa may have to rethink intelligence sharing with the U.S. if President-elect Donald Trump moves forward with his campaign promise to reinstate torture methods to gather information.
Michael Doucet, executive director of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, told a private audience in Toronto last week the Canadian government does not want intelligence acquired by torture, the Globe and Mail reported on Thursday.
"[The U.S.] may have a new administration that thinks torture is a good thing," Doucet said. "How do we react with them? Because we think torture is a bad thing ... We don't want information derived from torture."
"It's going to be an interesting and challenging time, and we've got to think about what defines us as Canadians," he continued in a recording acquired by the Globe and Mail.
The U.S. and Canada are both members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance along with the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Doucet's comments may have implications for the network's future under President-elect Trump, who has expressed support for waterboarding and sleep deprivation when questioning terrorist suspects.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail to bring back the Bush-era interrogation methods that were barred by Congress in 2005 in order to defeat the Islamic State. He seemed to reconsider his stance after meeting earlier this month with retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who told the president-elect he has "never found it to be useful."
Mattis was tapped to head the Defense Department under Trump's incoming administration.