Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says she’s read the original version of a highly-publicized intelligence watchdog’s report on foreign interference and she doesn’t believe any of her House of Commons colleagues knowingly betrayed their country.
“There is no list of MPs who have shown disloyalty to Canada,” she said. “I am vastly relieved.”
Last week, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a cross-party committee of MPs and senators with top security clearances, released a heavily redacted document alleging some parliamentarians have actively helped foreign governments meddle in Canadian politics.
May has a top security clearance allowing her to see classified intelligence and was granted access to the unredacted version of NSICOP Monday night. She said reactions to the report since it was tabled last week have triggered a “totally understandable media firestorm, which in my view is overblown.”
“So I am very glad I read the full report. I am very comfortable sitting with my colleagues,” she said.
May said the report list the names of MPs who may have been compromised by foreign governments.
“They have been beneficiaries of foreign governments interfering in nomination contests,” she said.
“Saying that I’m relieved does not mean that there is nothing to see here folks. There are clearly threats to Canadian democracy from foreign governments.”
May said the one troubling case in NSICOP’s report involved a former MP who maintained a relationship with a foreign intelligence officer.
The report says that, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the MP “sought to arrange a meeting in a foreign state with a senior intelligence official and also proactively provided the intelligence officer with information provided in confidence.”
May said that person, who was not named in the unredacted report, should be fully investigated by police.
The RCMP has said it is probing cases involving foreign interference but would not say whether it’s investigating parliamentarians.
May calls Bloc motion ‘a hot potato in the wrong soup pot’
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who also has a top security clearance, has asked for a briefing on the NSICOP report. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Tuesday he’s in the process of getting cleared to view the report.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has not sought clearance to review classified intelligence. He has argued that doing so would prevent him from commenting publicly.
Later today, MPs are expected to vote on a Bloc Québécois motion that calls for expanding the mandate of the public inquiry investigating foreign election interference to allow it to investigate the claims in the NSICOP report concerning MPs and senators.
The Liberal government has said it will support the motion and has already reached out to commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s staff to discuss next steps.
May said she was going to vote in favour but, after reading the report, changed her mind
“I think the Bloc motion is its throwing a hot potato in the wrong soup pot,” she said Tuesday.
“Throw it to Justice Hogue, that’s not good enough. We’re members of Parliament we should be able to — and especially those of us who have the clearance to read the report — should be able to read it, consider it, and start fortifying our own defences against foreign interference.”
Source Agencies