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Green Party Leader Elizabeth May urged colleague MPs not to advocate for the release of names of parliamentarians reportedly involved in foreign interference, saying doing so would jeopardize national security, and that to her knowledge, no lawmakers are “compromised.”
The public safety committee was meeting urgently to discuss starting a new study on India’s interference in Canada. Canada expelled six Indian diplomats this week amid allegations from the RCMP that Indian government agents were involved in “serious criminal activity” in Canada including murder and extortion.
A motion from NDP MP Alistair MacGregor to study the matter and call the RCMP and relevant ministers and officials to testify was adopted unanimously.
A subsequent motion tabled by MacGregor asking for all party leaders to get security clearances was met with resistance from the Conservative side, which presented an amendment requesting the names of parliamentarians colluding with foreign states be publicly released.
“No one currently serving in Parliament, to my knowledge, in the House of Commons, has been compromised or is serving the interest of a foreign government,” May told the committee during debate on the amendment.
“There are some people who have been referenced as ’semi-witting,’ but even the number, the numerical categorization of how many people might fall in that category, I was told clearly could not be said publicly without placing at risk the lives of our intelligence assets around the world.”
May has a Top Secret security clearance and read the unredacted version of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) report released in June.
The report, based on approximately 4,000 documents, concluded that some lawmakers and party candidates have been “semi-witting or witting participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics.”
May held a press conference in June after reading the NSICOP report and said the issue had been “overblown.” She also said some MPs had been the “beneficiaries of foreign governments interfering in nomination contests.”
Conservatives called on the government to release the names of the lawmakers involved in foreign interference after the NSICOP report was published. The government opposed the move, saying it would jeopardize national security and due process.
The matter ignited again this week when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the commission he could name some Conservatives engaged in foreign interference.
Poilievre has argued in the past that receiving the security clearance could prevent him from speaking freely and criticizing the government on foreign interference issues.
At the public safety committee on Oct. 18, Tory MP Dane Lloyd said a motion pushing party leaders to get a clearance is an attempt to “muzzle the leader of the Opposition from speaking out on the very important issue of foreign interference.”
MacGregor suggested to the committee that if Poilievre obtained a clearance he could receive information which could help filter out future problematic candidates.
On the issue of the release of names of lawmakers involved in foreign interference, MacGregor supported in essence the Tories’ amendment. He suggested a sub-amendment to include language saying the names should be released “while protecting national security.”
“We would love for the Canadian public to know these names,” said MacGregor. “I hate the fact that I have to serve in the House of Commons with this cloud of suspicious hanging over us, I think Canadians deserve to know.”
Liberal MP Iqwander Gaheer opposed releasing the names, saying doing would be akin to asking that the prime minister “engage in a criminal offence.”
The committee was suspended before a vote could take place on MacGregor’s second motion and related requested modifications. The committee is meeting again on Oct. 22.