Opposition parties are urging the public inquiry into foreign interference to investigate allegations of Canadian parliamentarians colluding with other governments, as described in a bombshell report released last week.
The Bloc Québécois has introduced a motion requesting the terms of reference of the inquiry be expanded to include startling allegations that federal politicians “wittingly” participated in foreign interference schemes over the last five years.
As it stands, the commission’s mandate is to “examine and assess” interference by China, Russia and other foreign states and “any impacts” on the 2019 and 2021 elections, meaning some of the allegations revolving around parliamentarians may fall outside the inquiry’s scope.
Last week, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) released a 92-page document containing allegations parliamentarians are working with foreign states, including sharing confidential information, meeting a “known intelligence officer” and accepting funds or favours.
The committee of parliamentarians, which is made up of MPs from all parties, “examined information” gathered between Sept. 1, 2018 and March 15 of this year.
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Both the NDP and Conservatives say they will support the Bloc motion, which also requests that the House of Commons formally “express concern that certain elected officials may be wittingly or unwittingly working in the interests of foreign powers.”
In a statement Monday, Conservative MP Andrew Scheer said he has written a letter to Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc and commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue asking the inquiry to “issue a finding of fact for each case in the NSICOP report where a member of a House of Commons (or) Senate of Canada have knowingly participated in foreign interference.”
“Canadians must learn the truth about these shocking allegations,” Scheer added.
Last month, the public inquiry into foreign interference – led by Hogue – released an interim report outlining “troubling events” in the last two elections, which undermined the rights of Canadian voters but were not found to have changed the result of the election itself.
Hogue’s findings described China’s “sophisticated, pervasive and persistent” attempt to meddle in Canada’s democratic institutions.
Global News has asked the inquiry whether it has requested classified documents from the Liberal government containing allegations parliamentarians are colluding with foreign states and is waiting for a response.
The Liberal government is resisting calls to identify the names of parliamentarians who allegedly collaborated with foreign governments, saying it is bound by Canada’s official secrets law, and that the intelligence may be incomplete or out of context.
Last Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland suggested it’s up to the RCMP to decide the next steps.
“Law enforcement bodies of jurisdiction are seized of the issue,” she said.
But the NSICOP report said the laws are not necessarily on the books to prosecute parliamentarians who “wittingly” collaborated with foreign states.
“Some (of the activities) may be illegal, but are unlikely to lead to criminal charges, owing to Canada’s failure to address the long-standing issue of protecting classified information and methods in judicial processes,” the report warned.
The Liberal government tabled Bill C-70, a sweeping piece of legislation meant to tackle foreign interference, which would include a registry of people in Canada acting on behalf of foreign governments.
But it’s unclear whether it will be in place by the next federal election, which is slated for October 2025.
“We have put in place more tools to fight foreign interference than any previous government,” Freeland told reporters Friday.
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