(Ottawa) A parliamentary committee’s finding that some Canadian MPs “knowingly” aided foreign state actors is “concerning,” but it is up to law enforcement to decide whether they broke the law, said Tuesday Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Freeland was speaking the day after the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians released a report following its study into whether foreign state actors interfered in the last two federal elections.
The report says foreign interference has been detected across a broad spectrum of Canadian politics and society, including at all levels of government, across all political parties, in the media and in the private sector.
The report suggests that all of the MPs’ actions involved were “unethical” and some could be considered illegal.
Although the MPs’ names were likely included in the full report, the paragraphs that reportedly contained them were removed from the version released Monday.
Ms. Freeland was pressed at a news conference Tuesday morning to explain why the names of these MPs are being kept secret and why no charges have been filed, given that some of these actions could amount to treason .
“I think your question is important because the committee’s findings are concerning, and they should be,” she said.
But she added that the government could not be the one to file charges.
The Canadian Press asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police if it was investigating MPs following the report, and has yet to receive a response.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser said there may be reasons to keep the names secret for now, particularly because the “truth” of the evidence is not known.
He also said openly discussing evidence of foreign interference could help the very people trying to harm Canada and its institutions.
Mr. Fraser indicated that if there was a criminal investigation and charges, it would take place publicly, as usual, in court.
Ms. Freeland rejected suggestions that the report further undermines Canadians’ trust in their government and electoral systems, especially since the government is not saying whether any of the MPs allegedly involved still sit in Parliament.
She also avoided answering whether the Liberals would remove one of their MPs from caucus if he was among those involved.
“The assurance I can give Canadians is that our government takes foreign interference very, very seriously,” she said.
“We have put in place tougher measures than those that existed under the previous Conservative government to combat foreign interference. »
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned to the issue of foreign interference during question period on Tuesday.
“Not only are we equipping our intelligence security agencies with new tools, as well as parliamentarians with new tools to be able to counter foreign interference, we are standing strong against foreign interference,” he said. affirmed.
“We are here to stand up to countries that flout the principles of international law, whether it be Russia, China, or others, we will continue to be there to ensure that Canadians are protected,” added the Prime Minister.
The report, however, criticizes the government for not responding to threats of foreign interference with sufficient vigor.
Allegations that foreign actors attempted to interfere in the results of the last two elections have dogged the government for more than a year. The Liberals were forced by the opposition parties to launch a public inquiry into this matter.
An interim report from that investigation released last month found that China attempted to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, but that did not affect the overall results, which returned the Liberals to power with a minority government.
Judge Marie-Josée Hogue said the interference may have affected the results in a small number of ridings, but there is no certainty about it and the overall integrity of the elections remained intact.