The public inquiry into foreign interference will probe explosive allegations parliamentarians are “wittingly” helping foreign governments and demonstrated behaviour that one federal leader said could be described as “dumb, unethical” or “foolish.”
“The Commission takes note of the government’s decision to resort to the process of an independent commission of inquiry to shed light on the facts,” said the inquiry in a public notice Monday.
Last week, the House of Commons backed a Bloc Québécois motion for the inquiry to investigate the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians’ (NSICOP) startling findings that federal politicians allegedly colluded with foreign governments over the last five years.
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.
The inquiry says it doesn’t need to expand its mandate because the current terms of reference allow it to dig into the allegations, adding it has access to all 4,000 documents, totaling 33,000 pages, reviewed by NSICOP “on which it based its conclusions.”
“Some passages in this NSICOP’s special report suggest that Canadian parliamentarians may have wittingly or unwittingly participated in acts of foreign interference. These passages have raised concerns and provoked heated exchanges among parliamentarians and in the media,” read the notice.
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But many of the allegations outlined in the NSICOP report did not come up during the inquiry’s hearings last month, which detailed “troubling events” in the last two elections, and which only became public after the heavily redacted document was released.
Last week, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who both have received the security clearance to review the top-secret version, read the unredacted NSICOP report and gave different interpretations.
On Monday, May tried to explain the divergent tones.
“I don’t think it is a contradiction between what Mr. Singh thought when he read the report and what I thought when I read the report,” said May on Monday in her second news conference in less than a week on the matter.
Last Tuesday, the Green Party Leader said she was “vastly relieved” after reading the classified report, adding there was “no list of MPs” who betrayed Canada.
Two days later, Singh said he was “not relieved,” pointing to “a number of MPs who have knowingly provided help to foreign governments, some to the detriment of Canada and Canadians”
“What they’re doing is unethical. It is in some cases against the law,” he added. “They are indeed traitors to the country.”
On Monday, May did not use the words “illegal” or “treasonous” to describe the actions, but said “a few of our colleagues currently serving are potentially compromised by foreign interference.”
“I will be firmly clear again in saying that I read the full, unredacted report. The word ‘treason’ does not apply to any current sitting MP,” she added.
But May described the behaviour of some of parliamentarians cited in the NSICOP report as “dumb, unethical” or “foolish.”
“If you weren’t asking questions, you should have, kind of, ought to have thought, ‘Do I want to accept help from somebody?’” she said.
May was one of just two MPs who voted against the Bloc motion to refer the NSICOP report to the public inquiry, saying it would be “throwing a hot potato in the wrong soup pot.”
The inquiry has faced concerns that its mandate is too broad and that its timeline too tight.
Last month, Commissioner Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, delivered an interim report, finding China meddled in the last two elections, but those efforts did out change the outcomes.
The commission still expects to deliver its final report Dec. 31, saying it plans to make “every effort” to complete its work by then.
“The Commission understands that this deadline has been set to allow the government to put in place any measures that may be appropriate to protect the integrity of elections before the next
federal general election, which must be held no later than October 20, 2025.”
— with files from Mackenzie Gray
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