Prominent Canadian conservative commentator and filmmaker Lauren Southern has publicly accused Canada’s intelligence service of waging a months-long harassment and psychological manipulation campaign in an attempt to forcibly recruit her as a confidential informant.
In a detailed thread posted to X, Southern revealed that agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) appeared unannounced at her door late in 2024 and refused to leave her alone until she agreed to “build a relationship” with them.
“They proceeded to call me from anonymous numbers repeatedly, contacted my gym, and told me they wouldn’t go away unless I became an asset,” Southern wrote. “They kept returning, claiming they were giving me ‘last chances’ before they threw me to the wolves.”
According to Southern, agents explicitly told her that courts “wouldn’t care if I was actually guilty or not,” that “someone had to take the fall,” and that she could ensure it wasn’t her if she cooperated. One agent allegedly stressed that “it’s not what’s true that matters, it’s the perception,” strongly implying that authorities could destroy her life through manufactured public narrative regardless of evidence or innocence.
The agents reportedly warned Southern that she faced imminent arrest, that she would never be able to travel to the United States again without being detained by the FBI, and that she “might not be around to see [her] child grow up.”
Southern says none of these threats ever materialized; she has since traveled to the U.S. without incident and has never been charged with any offence.
“I did nothing wrong,” Southern emphasized. “I was psychologically manipulated for months in an attempt to turn me into a government asset.”
Canada has one-party consent for recording conversations, and Southern states she recorded hours of interactions with the agents. She has released several short audio excerpts that she says are representative of the exchanges. In the clips, a male voice identified as a CSIS agent can be heard pressuring her to “work with us” and warning that refusal would lead to severe consequences orchestrated through “perception” rather than facts.
The agent repeatedly insists the conversations are off the record and that “your audience will never know.” Southern stressed that she harbours no personal animosity toward the individual agent, stating, “He was just given instructions and a job,” but warned that the same agent would have no hesitation carrying out orders to falsely imprison her if so directed.
“I know I’m not the only one this has happened to,” she added, framing her disclosure as a public service so Canadians understand the tactics allegedly being used against dissident voices.
The agency is prohibited by law from commenting on specific operational matters or the existence of human sources.
Lauren Southern rose to international prominence during the 2010s as a leading figure in Canada’s conservative and libertarian online media sphere before largely stepping away from public life in 2019 to start a family.