(Ottawa) The commission of inquiry into interference considers that its mandate does not need to be broadened for it to look into allegations that “certain parliamentarians” have, “knowingly or through willful ignorance”, participated in disruptive maneuvers by foreign states.
“The Commission will address these issues within the framework it has already established to fulfill its mandate and according to the rules and principles applicable to any independent commission of inquiry,” it was said in an opinion released Monday.
“Passages” from the report of the Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence (CPSNR), published in a redacted version earlier this month, “have raised concerns and provoked heated exchanges between parliamentarians and in the media”, notes the team of Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, who chairs the public inquiry.
The group of senators and deputies wrote that they had “seen disturbing information according to which certain parliamentarians are, according to the intelligence services, half-willing or willing participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in the politics of the country”.
Commissioner Hogue’s team specifies that it has access to the same confidential documents – in their unredacted form of intelligence relating to national security – that the CPSNR analyzed to draw conclusions.
“She also has access to documents that the National Security and Intelligence Review Office consulted as part of its recent review of the production and dissemination, within the Government of Canada, of intelligence concerning foreign interference exercised during the last two Canadian federal elections,” it adds.
The Hogue commission maintains that the “examination” of allegations concerning “certain parliamentarians” will be included in the part of its mandate that it is completing and which aims to “examine and evaluate the capacity of ministries, agencies, institutional structures and federal governance processes to enable the Canadian government to detect, prevent and counter any form of foreign interference aimed directly or indirectly at Canada’s democratic processes.
Last week, a Bloc motion aimed at broadening the scope of the public inquiry was adopted in the Commons almost unanimously. The approved motion wanted the House to request a review of the mandate of the commission chaired by Judge Marie-Josée Hogue to “allow it to investigate the federal democratic institutions of Canada, including the parliamentarians of the House of Commons elected during the 43rd and 44th Legislatures as well as the parliamentarians serving in the Senate.”
