Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press The commissioner, Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, as part of the release of the report of the Public Inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is ready to handcuff Canada's Minister of Public Safety if the latter ventures to reveal the names of his colleagues suspected of foreign interference.
At least that's what Dominic LeBlanc told journalists on Monday when he announced that the Liberal troops will support the Bloc Québécois motion asking to send the court of the Hogue commission the decision to reveal, or not, the list of parliamentarians concerned that he himself cannot name.
“I was in a meeting this morning with Deputy Commissioner [of the RCMP] Mark Flynn, and I asked him the question: what would happen if I disclosed, as the Conservatives are asking me to do, a list of names ?” reported Dominic LeBlanc.
“He told me […] that I would immediately be subject to a criminal investigation and criminal prosecution as a result . »
To break this impasse, the Trudeau government agrees to let Quebec Court of Appeal judge Marie-Josée Hogue decide on the relevance of making public the identity of deputies or senators suspected of foreign interference by the intelligence services. Judge Hogue is already leading the public inquiry into foreign interference, which already produced a preliminary report in May.
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The Trudeau government has been under pressure for a week to reveal which elected officials were complicit in foreign interference, as revealed in a devastating report last Monday. Members of the Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence reported that their own colleagues lacked loyalty to Canada, but without naming them.
The opposition wants to know
“We must know who these MPs are who collaborate with hostile foreign countries,” Quebec conservative Pierre Paul-Hus demanded Monday during question period.
« Why do we always have to [the government] back to the wall before moving on the issue of foreign interference,” added Bloc member Alain Therrien. “For 11 weeks, the Prime Minister has known the names of MPs who potentially work with foreign governments like those of India and China,” also accused the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Jagmeet Singh.
The Bloc Québécois devoted its opposition day Monday to the theme of foreign interference, and proposed a motion which called for expanding the mandate of Judge Hogue, and the Commission on Foreign Interference, to allow her to investigate targeted parliamentarians. The Conservative Party made the same request in a letter sent on Sunday, and the NDP also agrees with the idea.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , confirmed Monday that his party would also support the motion. Proof, he said during a press briefing in Quebec, that his government “continues to take foreign interference with all the necessary seriousness.”
The motion should therefore be easily adopted on Tuesday, following a vote devoid of any suspense.
It's up to the judge to decide
The Hogue Commission is already in talks with government lawyers to “find the best way to proceed,” said Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
“The committee has access to all documents that the committee of parliamentarians has reviewed. The committee can request other documents,” he assured, without saying clearly whether the list of parliamentarians should be provided to it.
The Minister of Security Public Service, which is also responsible for Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, ultimately accuses the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, of declining the security clearance that would allow him, too, access to the confidential documents consulted by the committee parliamentary.