More on economic intelligence gathering III

Further to this and this, the current Chief of CSE, John Forster, also chose not to answer the question rather than say a simple "no" when offered the chance to confirm or deny gathering intelligence of value to Canadian companies (Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, 5 November 2012):

Senator [Joseph] Day: Would there ever be a situation where you would communicate intelligence or communication that you have developed directly to a Canadian company? For instance, you might learn about intellectual property being hijacked and stolen, or you might develop some information with respect to a takeover bid that would be of value to the Canadian company.

Mr. Forster: We generally provide intelligence to government departments. If there was a threat to a Canadian company, we would work with CSIS and the RCMP.

Senator Day: Should I play on the word "generally"?

Mr. Forster: No, no intention was implied. We would work with our domestic agencies — RCMP and CSIS — who have that responsibility for domestic.