Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 30.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Two major Canadian Sikh organizations are calling on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to obtain a top-level security clearance so he can learn the names of past and current Conservatives politicians and party members who may have collaborated with hostile foreign powers such as India and China.
The House of Commons public-safety and national-security committee heard testimony Thursday from Moninder Singh of the BC Gurdwaras Council and Balpreet Singh, representing the World Sikh Organization.
Both men said they do not want to engage in partisan politics but urged Mr. Poilievre to follow the leaders of the NDP, Bloc Québécois and Green Party who agreed to obtain a national-security clearance to read an unredacted report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP).
NSICOP released a version of the report earlier this year that alleged some parliamentarians have either wittingly or unwittingly aided other countries in conducting foreign-interference here. The public version of the report did not identify these people.
Balpreet Singh told MPs that it is “willful blindness” on Mr. Poilievre’s part to refuse to get a top-secret clearance so he can read the NSICOP report and get secret briefings from national-security agencies.
“My initial inclination is that this information should be made public. We need to know which MPs are working for foreign governments. I appreciate there are intelligence considerations so that is probably not going to happen,” he said.
“All of our party leaders should have a security clearance and not having that clearance at this point, I would go so far to say is willful blindness.”
Moninder Singh said members of the Sikh community are asking themselves if the Conservative Leader’s refusal to get a security clearance is because he can say “I never knew.”
He said the Indian media have tried to paint a picture that “the Conservative Party and Mr. Poilievre are standing up for the truth, which is Indian truth.”
The BC Gurdwaras Council spokesperson called India an “enemy state,” saying that officials here have said they have evidence that diplomats and criminal proxies “come here killing Canadians on Canadian soil.”
The report from NSICOP said foreign actors targeted Conservative Party leadership races. The specifics are redacted in the report’s public version, but it says there were “two specific instances” where officials from the People’s Republic of China allegedly interfered in the leadership races. It also says India allegedly interfered in one Tory leadership race.
NSICOP did not identify whether this interference involved Mr. Poilievre or other candidates.
In recent days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal MPs have repeatedly pressed Mr. Poilievre to obtain a security clearance, even suggesting he might have something to hide.
The Conservative Leader has accused Mr. Trudeau of trying to silence him, saying he does not want to undergo the process of obtaining a national-security clearance because he would be bound by secrecy laws and could not criticize the government.
In testimony before the public inquiry into foreign interference on Oct. 16, Mr. Trudeau said he had received highly classified intelligence that Conservative Party politicians and members were involved in or were susceptible to foreign interference. He later acknowledged that Liberals and members of other political parties were also compromised.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau told the Commons that he has asked security agencies to find a way to share information with Mr. Poilievre about foreign-interference activities affecting the Conservative caucus.
Canadian Security and Intelligence Service director Daniel Rogers said earlier this week that the best way to share intelligence is through a security clearance, but more limited information can be provided through what is known as a threat-reduction measure. This allows CSIS to share some intelligence if there is an imminent threat.