anada's intelligence agency warned MPs and senators ahead of the 2021 election that their public conversations probably would be monitored by foreign states and that hostile actors could target their staff, according to recently obtained documents.

"You are of immediate and constant interest to certain hostile state actors," reads a copy of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) talking points prepared for briefings with elected officials prior to the 2021 election.

While the fact that CSIS briefed some MPs before the election is public knowledge, the briefing document — obtained through an access to information request — sheds light on what was said behind closed doors and raises questions about how effective the briefings were.

"I think you'd have to describe it as a pretty basic overview," said Wesley Wark, a senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

But essentially, this is a security intelligence agency approaching a group of MPs with a belief — which seems to have been borne out — that members of Parliament, at least at that time, have really very little understanding of foreign interference issues." 

The document's release comes as a parliamentary committee probing claims of interference in Canadian elections by Beijing prepares to hear from the people who oversaw the two main parties' campaigns during the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Former Liberal national campaign directors Jeremy Broadhurst and Azam Ishmael will take questions from MPs today. They'll be followed by former Conservative national campaign directors Fred DeLorey and Hamish Marshall.

The goal of the briefings, said CSIS, was to alert Parliamentarians to the threat and to "create political resiliency against the People's Republic of China's foreign interference efforts in Canada."

According to the CSIS briefing document, elected officials were warned of the "tradecraft" of certain hostile states. They were warned about "elicitation," for example — that's when a foreign actor provides an individual with limited or false information in the hope that the target will correct them and provide the right answers. Read the full story here.

Sanka Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images)

A photographer takes pictures of the aurora australis, also known as the southern lights, as it glows on the horizon over Lake Ellesmere on the outskirts of Christchurch, N.Z., on Monday

The federal government outlined its position on four key areas in its ongoing negotiations with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) on Monday in an open letter addressed to Canadians, marking a shift in its bargaining strategy 

Wage increases, control over telework arrangements, a ban on contracting out work and priority for senior staff in the event 

of downsizing are the four "key" demands remaining, Treasury Board president Mona Fortier wrote. "This round of negotiating has been a heavy lift for both parties," she said in the letter. On