The Peace Tower of Parliament Hill is pictured in Ottawa.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The minority Liberals say they will back an opposition motion calling for allegations about federal politicians colluding with other countries to be turned over to the foreign interference inquiry, a move that passes the accusations to another body to handle.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters Monday that the government was already in touch with the inquiry on the weekend. He said the Privy Council Office, a central government agency that also serves the Prime Minister’s Office, had already reached out to the Foreign Interference Commission, headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, “to see what they suggest in terms of the best way forward.”
The vote on the Bloc Québécois motion to turn the matter over to Justice Hogue is scheduled for Tuesday, but its passage appears assured given that the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Conservatives have indicated they would support it.
Mr. LeBlanc said the government feels the Hogue inquiry “offers us an appropriate forum whereby the allegations that surfaced in the National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians can be examined.”
Justice Hogue is still in the midst of a massive public inquiry into interference in Canadian politics by China and other states. She released an interim report in May but is planning another round of public hearings in the fall with a final report due by the end of year.
The Hogue inquiry declined Monday to comment on the extra work that appears headed its way. “The Commission will await the outcome of the vote on the Bloc Québécois motion that was debated in the House of Commons today before determining whether to comment on it,” spokesman Michael Tansey said.
A national-security watchdog report last week revealed that some parliamentarians are collaborating with foreign governments for their own benefit. On June 3, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), an oversight body set up by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said in a special report that politicians are “wittingly” helping foreign governments such as China and India meddle in Canadian politics.
The Official Opposition led by Pierre Poilievre had challenged the government to name the politicians. The government had instead urged all party leaders to request classified briefings on the NSICOP report to see the unredacted version. The Globe and Mail reported last week the uncensored report identifies some of the alleged collaborators.
This new solution likely takes the pressure off party leaders who can now leave it to Justice Hogue to decide what to do. “The Hogue Commission obviously has the appropriate security clearances, has the appropriate security in terms of documentary handling, the Hogue Commission will have access to all of the information, of course that the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians had and the Hogue commission can request any other documentation that they would require,” Mr. LeBlanc told reporters.
Dan Stanton, a former manager at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and now director of the national-security program at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute, said he does not believe handing off the alleged collusion to the foreign interference inquiry will resolve the matter, or result in Canadians learning their names. “It would require a significant retooling of their mandate.”
He noted one of the cases documented by NSICOP talked about a former MP and their relationship with a foreign intelligence service: a case Mr. Stanton said sounds like espionage. To examine this would likely require more intelligence from CSIS – information it may not want to share, he said.
“I don’t think they would be able to identify the names, because then that will impact on the sources and methods of CSIS,” Mr. Stanton said.
He said responsibility for handling this should fall on the federal government and it should work to bring all parties together so they can deal with the parliamentarians in question on a case-by-case basis with each party.
“I think the federal government has to take ownership of this,” he said.
NSICOP, which is composed of MPs from all major parties as well as senators, declined to identify the parliamentarians, saying it was constrained from doing so by restrictions built into its mandate. The government has refused to identify the federal politicians publicly, saying revealing classified information is irresponsible, and won’t say how many are accused or whether any sit in cabinet.
The Prime Minister’s Office has had the classified version of the report since March including the names of parliamentarians identified.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has said he would seek a classified briefing on the matter.
On Monday, he said he would expel any NDP MPs if the report says they are knowingly working with a foreign government. Mr. Singh said he also wrote a letter to Mr. LeBlanc urging that he ensure the Hogue inquiry look into allegations in the NSICOP report that China and India interfered in Conservative Party leadership races.
He noted the Prime Minister has had access to the names in the report since March.
“Justin Trudeau has known for 11 weeks and has not done anything,” Mr. Singh said.
The NSICOP report said some politicians are accepting money from foreign governments and are communicating frequently with foreign governments to obtain support from community groups or businesses that foreign diplomats have promised to mobilize to help their campaigns.
Others are allegedly providing foreign diplomats with privileged information on fellow parliamentarians knowing that this information will be used to put pressure on these colleagues to change their positions. Some are lobbying colleagues or influencing parliamentary business to help a foreign state or leaking confidential information to known intelligence officers of foreign states, the report said.
Steven Chase