Green Party MP Mike Morrice looks on as leader Elizabeth May speaks while holding up a copy of a public security report during a news conference, in Ottawa, Tuesday, June 11, 2024.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The classified version of a national-security watchdog’s report into foreign interference does not detail any examples of sitting MPs being disloyal to Canada, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Tuesday, adding a new layer of interpretation to the report, which said some parliamentarians have knowingly collaborated with countries such as India and China to meddle in Canadian democracy.
Ms. May is the first opposition party leader to review the top-secret version of the report, which was redacted before being released last week by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP). The redacted report, which did not identify any parliamentarians, said the country’s intelligence services found some to be “semi-witting or witting” participants in foreign-interference efforts.
The disclosure set off a firestorm on Parliament Hill, with the opposition Conservatives and New Democrats repeatedly calling on the government to name those accused of working against Canada’s interests and the Liberals maintaining that it would be irresponsible to do so.
The government said party leaders should get the appropriate security clearance to see the classified document and draw their own conclusions. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will get his briefing on Wednesday. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he is in the process of getting security clearance, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has so far declined to do the same.
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In a more than hour-long press conference Tuesday, Ms. May went further than the government has in explaining publicly what the classified report shows and what it is and isn’t saying.
She said it does not detail any examples of sitting members of Parliament wittingly collaborating with foreign states, though she said some may be caught up in meddling.
“While a few named people may have been compromised by foreign influence, it falls far short of what could be considered disloyalty to Canada,” Ms. May said at the press conference.
She said she was cautioned not to release a precise number of MPs but said it was less than a handful. She said those MPs received help from foreign governments who interfered on their behalf in nomination contests.
“There is no list of names of MPs who have consciously, deliberately sought to sell out Canada to preference another government.”
In the press conference, she did not say how she distinguishes between knowingly and unknowingly participating in foreign interference.
However, she clarified in a subsequent interview with The Globe and Mail that the classified report does not make it clear whether those MPs were aware of the interference, but added that “it would be hard to imagine they weren’t.”
The NSICOP report does not distinguish between senators and MPs in its description of “semi-witting or witting” participants in foreign interference. In her press conference, Ms. May said she was only speaking specifically to elected parliamentarians.
Overall, she said the media firestorm created by last week’s report release is “overblown” and having read the classified report, she is “vastly relieved” and has “no worries about anyone in the House of Commons.”
Still, she said she had serious concerns about a former MP that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says maintained a relationship with a foreign intelligence officer, proactively provided them with information shared in confidence, and tried to set up a meeting with a senior intelligence official in a foreign state.
“That’s an outrageous example, and I think prosecution is appropriate,” Ms. May said. She added that she believes the individual should be named.
More broadly, she said the report clearly shows that Canada’s democracy is under threat and “it is clear some foreign governments see Canada as a pretty vulnerable, soft target.”
She said she is concerned that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) “didn’t immediately take the recommendations from the committee and implement them.” His office received the classified version of the report in March.
Asked why the minority Liberals did not provide the same level of clarity and information as Ms. May did, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office said it is commenting on the report while staying in the bounds of the law and in accordance with advice from intelligence experts.
“Ms. May is best-placed to explain her own accounting of the report,” said Mr. LeBlanc’s spokesperson, Jean-Sébastien Comeau.
The Green Party Leader told reporters during the press conference that her comments had been vetted by security experts and she received advice from the Privy Council Office (the bureaucratic arm of the PMO) before speaking publicly.
Soon after she spoke, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to applaud her. He said Ms. May “took on her responsibilities as party leader, got her security clearance and did the work.”
The NSICOP report is the latest to outline deficiencies in how the government addresses meddling by foreign powers in Canadian democracy.
The federal government did not announce any concrete new steps after the report’s release and just said it would review its recommendations. Mr. LeBlanc also said at the time that the government disagreed with some elements of the report.
However, as the report gained more and more attention, the minority Liberals shifted their approach and on Tuesday voted with a Bloc motion to refer the allegations to the foreign-interference inquiry led by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue.
The motion was also supported by the NDP and Conservatives. However, the Green Party voted against it. Ms. May said parliamentarians should govern their own House rather than passing the “hot potato” to someone else.
She said the party leaders should sit down together and chart a course forward, which Ms. May said should include investigating the former MP who is accused of wittingly working with a foreign government. She said such a move was needed to restore voter confidence.
Asked why Mr. Poilievre isn’t getting his security clearance to also read the classified report, his office said it was because the secrecy rules would prevent him from acting on what he’s learned.
That position contradicts what the head of CSIS, David Vigneault, told MPs last week, when he categorically said leaders could use the information to act. He urged party leaders to get the classified briefings and take matters into their own hands, for example, by removing a caucus member or barring someone from a nomination race.
Mr. Trudeau criticized the Conservative Leader for being the only party chief to decline an invitation to read the report.
“He is choosing ignorance so he can play partisan politics,” he said.