(Savelletri Di Fasano) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could not say Saturday whether Liberal MPs were among the elected officials suspected of helping foreign powers by the Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence.
Mr. Trudeau’s silence comes after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May drew different conclusions from the report tabled last week in Parliament.
According to the committee made up of deputies and senators, some parliamentarians are “half-willing or half-willing participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in the country’s politics.”
Ms. May said there was nothing in the report to suggest that current parliamentarians favored the interests of a foreign state over those of Canada. Mr. Singh, on the contrary, believes that a number of parliamentarians have helped foreign governments.
Mr. Trudeau said he was letting Mr. Singh and Ms. May speak for themselves when asked why he refused to follow suit.
Mr. Singh also said that if the report had indicated that an NDP MP knowingly helped a foreign country interfere in Canada’s internal affairs, he would have suspended him from caucus. On Thursday, he said he wouldn’t have to.
“It is important that Canadians can have confidence in our ability to counter foreign interference. This is why we are working with the Commission on Foreign Interference to see how it can follow up on the report of the committee of parliamentarians,” he said.
Even though he said he disagreed with the way in which the committee reached its conclusions, Mr. Trudeau welcomed the creation of the said committee by his government and the work of its members.
“The Parliamentarians Committee on National Security exists so that parliamentarians of all parties can have access to the work of our national intelligence agencies. This is an important step that was not taken when the Conservative Party was in power,” underlined Mr. Trudeau.
The Federal Prime Minister spoke at his press conference held at the end of the G7 Summit in Italy.
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said he would request an information session, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre refused to request the required security clearance. The Conservatives explained that if he read the report, he would not be able to reveal anything about its contents.
Mr. Poilievre urged the government to publicly reveal the names of the MPs mentioned in the report.