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FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, July 1.Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
The RCMP began making internal inquiries to determine whether the FBI halted intelligence sharing with the Mounties after an Aug. 27 tweet by agency director Kash Patel, sources say.
Mr. Patel was critical of an internal CBC/Radio-Canada guideline about removing the word terrorism from coverage of the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11.
The post from the Federal Bureau of Investigation director said that “any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject” the CBC’s internal guidance “will no longer have a friend in this FBI.”
The public broadcaster subsequently reversed the policy.
The Globe and Mail spoke to three national-security sources with direct knowledge of the probe who stated that the RCMP has not found any indication that intelligence sharing between the two police forces has been interrupted.
Two of the sources said the RCMP did not receive any official notifications from the FBI about co-operation being suspended.
The Globe is not naming the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
The New York Times reported on Friday that Mr. Patel “temporarily halted” co-operation in response to the CBC policy. The newspaper said that involved cancelled meetings, though it did not provide specifics.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis issued a statement that attacked the CBC policy but did not answer questions about the New York Times story.
The RCMP and the FBI frequently co-operate on cross-border investigations related to national security, terrorism, drug trafficking and other crimes, including several high-profile investigations in just the past year. For example, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme appeared alongside Mr. Patel at a news conference earlier this year to announce the arrest of alleged Canadian drug trafficker Ryan Wedding.
The RCMP released a statement that declined to comment on whether there was any impact on its work with the FBI but noted that the force and the RCMP have a long-standing history of working together.
“Given the shared border between Canada and the United States, the RCMP works with U.S. law enforcement partners to address cross-border criminal threats and protect public safety,” the statement said.
The controversy around the CBC policy on terrorism unfolded at a time of increasing animosity between the two countries amid President Donald Trump’s trade war. Mr. Patel’s post on X came a week after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his government was walking away from trade negotiations with the United States.
The CBC has faced criticism over a leaked copy of a memo that outlined what the broadcaster said was its long-standing policy to attribute the term terrorism to officials or experts.
The broadcaster announced the same day as Mr. Patel’s X post that it was changing its guidance to no longer require attribution when describing the Sept. 11 attacks as an act of terrorism.
With reports from The Canadian Press