Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a press conference following a tour of a Sanofi vaccine manufacturing plant in Toronto on May 30.Cole Burston/Reuters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the withholding and redacting of documents requested by the inquiry investigating foreign meddling in Canadian democracy, arguing that his government has already shared enough information with Justice Marie-Josée Hogue.
The Foreign Interference Commission disagrees and says it is in discussion with the government about the redactions. The government said last week that the redactions cover about 9 per cent of the documents provided to the inquiry and an undisclosed number of other secret cabinet documents have been completely withheld.
“We have actually shared more cabinet confidences than any previous government in history,” Mr. Trudeau said at a press conference in Toronto on Thursday when asked to explain the redactions.
He added that the government has already waived cabinet confidence in a few cases, noting that the commission received what he said were four relevant memorandums to cabinet.
When the inquiry was announced last September, however, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc promised that the commission would have full access to secret documents.
“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,” Mr. LeBlanc said.
In a brief statement, inquiry spokesperson Michael Tansey declined to weigh in on the Prime Minister’s comments. “Discussions with the government on document production are still ongoing,” Mr. Tansey said in a brief statement. “In light of this, the commission will not comment on this issue at this time.”
The Conservatives and NDP said the government’s refusal to lift cabinet confidence and release the complete documents is symptomatic of a broader pattern from the Liberals who first played down foreign interference and then tried to avoid calling an inquiry.
“Once again, his Liberal government is using every available tool, including using cabinet confidence, to block the truth about what they knew regarding Beijing’s interference in our elections,” said Conservative MP Michael Cooper.
NDP MP Alistair MacGregor said the government has “had to be pressured at every stage to disclose information” and urged transparency to ensure the inquiry has the full picture of the issue.
“Canadians want to know the full story about foreign interference,” he said.
On Tuesday, the opposition parties passed a motion calling for Mr. LeBlanc and senior civil servants to testify before the procedure and House affairs committee on the redaction concerns raised by Commissioner Hogue.
The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois said the redacted documents could reveal more information about what the government knew regarding interference by Beijing, when they knew about it and what they did in response.
The Liberals voted against the motion.
While Mr. LeBlanc’s public comments at the time of the inquiry’s creation promised broad access to secret documents, the actual terms of reference for the inquiry are much narrower. Those terms state just that the commission will have access to the same cabinet documents that were provided to former governor-general David Johnston in his brief role as independent special rapporteur on foreign interference.
“We have done more than any previous government to counter foreign interference,” Mr. Trudeau said, adding that his government has shown the “transparency and openness that is necessary for people to be confident that Canada is doing everything to keep them and their institutions safe.”
Last week, the Privy Council Office said the government was withholding the documents because cabinet confidentiality “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.
However, the advocacy group Democracy Watch, which began raising questions about the redacted documents in February, noted that the Prime Minister waived cabinet confidentiality for the inquiry studying the Emergencies Act invocation in 2022.
The group’s co-founder, Duff Conacher, said Thursday that if the government doesn’t release the documents, Canadians would be justified in assuming that the records paint the Trudeau cabinet in a bad light.
The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), an independent oversight body, said in a report released this week on Chinese political foreign interference that it also requested a broader set of cabinet documents than what had been provided to the special rapporteur.
The agency said that request to the Prime Minister went unanswered.
Soon after Justice Hogue released her first report on foreign interference, the government tabled a long-delayed bill aimed at bolstering Canada’s defences. The sweeping legislation, dubbed Bill C-70, establishes a foreign-interference registry, grants new powers to Canada’s spy agency and creates new criminal offences, such as political interference.
The House public safety committee held its first hearing on the legislation Thursday, and began with presentations from a raft of senior civil servants.
Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère, associate assistant deputy minister of Public Safety, told MPs that the government created the foreign-interference registry after consulting with allies who already have such systems in place.
The registries, he said, are “increasingly considered an international best practice.”
With reports from Jeff Gray and Bill Curry.