The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 18.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have forced a meeting of a House of Commons committee to investigate the federal government’s refusal to turn over all cabinet documents on foreign interference to a public inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian democracy.
The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Ottawa is facing pushback from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue for citing cabinet confidentiality in redacting records provided to the public inquiry investigating interference by China and other hostile states in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
The government is also withholding an undisclosed number of cabinet documents, according to the Privy Council Office (PCO), which reports directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc had initially promised that the Commission into Foreign Interference would have full access to secret documents, including “all relevant cabinet documents,” even if some of that sensitive information can’t be made available to Canadians.
In a letter to the Commons committee on procedure and House affairs on Friday, Conservative and Bloc MPs say they want to call Mr. LeBlanc for an explanation.
“It appears the Liberal cabinet is attempting to block the commissioner from accessing information that may reveal details about what the Liberal government knew about Beijing’s interference in our elections, when they learned about it, and why they attempted to hide it from Canadians,” says the letter signed by Conservative MPs Michael Cooper, Eric Duncan, Blaine Calkins and Bloc MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau.
The PCO has told The Globe that approximately 9 per cent of 33,000 cabinet documents provided to the inquiry have been redacted. An undisclosed number of other secret cabinet documents have been completely withheld.
Pierre-Alain Bujold, manager of media relations at the PCO, did not say how many cabinet documents have been held back. But he said the commission has been given access to “relevant information” about what the cabinet knew concerning foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
In their letter to require hearings into the matter, the MPs said, “Despite Minister LeBlanc’s promise that the commissioner of the inquiry would have access to all relevant documents, including cabinet documents, an undisclosed number of cabinet documents have been withheld from the commission and nearly 10 per cent of the cabinet documents that have been produced contain redactions.”
Asked to explain the reasoning behind the government’s move, Mr. Bujold said, “Cabinet confidentiality is a cornerstone of the Westminster system of government that is protected by convention, common law, and legislative provisions. It is critical to allowing cabinet to carry out its mandate effectively.”
Section 39 of the Canada Evidence Act safeguards cabinet confidentiality, a long-standing principle upheld by the courts to protect collective decision-making by ministers.
Mr. Leblanc also invoked cabinet confidentiality when asked about The Globe report on Thursday in the House’s Question Period. He told the House that “solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidence were essential things that need to be protected.”
When he announced the inquiry in September, Mr. LeBlanc said “Justice Hogue will have full access to all relevant cabinet documents, as well as all other information she deems relevant for the purposes of her inquiry.”
The confidentiality exceptions for the inquiry are cabinet documents that the government authorized for disclosure to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, as well as the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. This followed a recommendation from former governor-general David Johnston before he resigned as independent special rapporteur on foreign interference.
Mr. Johnston, who recommended against a public inquiry, wrote in a report last year that NSIRA and NSICOP should have access to every cabinet document he reviewed. The two organizations are also reviewing what the Liberal government and national-security agencies knew about allegations of foreign interference in the past two Canadian elections, and when they knew it.
“If Justice Hogue is going to fulfill her mandate, she needs access to all the cabinet documents to find out who in the Trudeau government knew about PRC [People’s Republic of China] interference and what did they do about it,” said Michael Chong, Conservative foreign affairs critic. Mr. Chong had been targeted by Beijing including members of his family in Hong Kong.
Justice Hogue resumes public hearings in the fall and will submit a second and final report on recommendations to combat foreign interference at the end of December. In her first report, on May 3, Justice Hogue concluded that foreign interference in 2019 and 2021 undermined the right of Canadian voters to have an electoral process “free from coercion or covert influence” and may have affected results in a small number of ridings.
While foreign meddling did not alter the overall outcome of the two elections, she issued a call to action for the government to vigorously enact measures to tackle this “malign” threat to Canadian democracy.
She identified China as the “most persistent and sophisticated foreign-interference threat to Canada” at the moment. Days later, the government tabled a bill to implement a package of reforms to combat foreign interference, including the much-promised foreign agent influence registry and new Criminal Code offences related to foreign meddling.