Singh says he doesn't understand why Poilievre isn't getting his security clearance

Photo: Sean Kilpatrick The Canadian Press Jagmeet Singh says party leaders need to be briefed on top-secret information.

David Baxter – The Canadian Press in Ottawa

Posted at 3:34 PM Updated at 5:05 PM

• Canada

New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh is deeply concerned that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is not getting the high-level security clearance needed to see classified documents on foreign interference.

Mr. Singh says party leaders need to be briefed on top-secret information, pointing to RCMP allegations that Indian government agents played a role in the extortion, coercion and murder of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil.

“We have these serious allegations that a foreign government has literally hired gangs in Canada to go and shoot up homes and businesses, putting the lives of Canadians at risk. Does this sound like the response of a leader who is serious about this, who is genuinely concerned about security? ?” Singh said Thursday at a news conference in Toronto.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed Wednesday before the public inquiry into foreign interference that he knows the names of past and present Conservative Party parliamentarians and candidates who are linked to foreign interference. Mr. Trudeau also said that parliamentarians from other parties, including Liberals, had also been singled out.

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“I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates of the Conservative Party of Canada who are implicated or at high risk of being implicated, or for whom there is clear intelligence regarding foreign interference,” Mr. Trudeau told the committee.

Trudeau must make names public, says Poilievre

Mr. Poilievre responded by accusing the prime minister of lying under oath and saying he should release the names.

“If Justin Trudeau has evidence to the contrary, he should make it public. Now that he has spoken in general terms to a commission of inquiry, he should make the facts public. But he won’t, because he is making it up,” Poilievre wrote Wednesday afternoon on X.

The Conservative leader maintains that on October 14, senior security officials in Ottawa briefed him “on the issue of foreign interference from India.”

He believes that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act allows the government to warn Canadians of specific risks of foreign interference “without requiring them to swear an oath of secrecy or control what they say.”

In addition, Mr. Poilievre maintains that his chief of staff received “classified information” from the government, but that no government official ever informed the leader of the official opposition, or his chief of staff, that “a current or former Conservative parliamentarian or candidate was knowingly participating in foreign interference activities.”

National security alert

The NDP leader stressed Thursday that he preferred to examine such information with his own eyes. “I don’t want to outsource this to someone else,” Mr. Singh explained. “If it has an impact on my party and I’m the leader of this party, I want to make sure I know what’s going on.”

Mr. Singh further stressed that he wanted these names to be released in a manner that did not compromise national security laws.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who also has the security clearance to access top-secret documents, echoed the call for Poilievre to do so as well.

“The only way Canadians can know that the Official Opposition has not been compromised by foreign interference is for its leader to seek and receive security clearance,” May wrote in a statement. “I’ve been asking him to do this since June 2024. I’m pushing even harder for him to do it now.” »

Ms May is referring to the redacted version of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians’ report on foreign interference, released in the spring, which flagged alleged attempts by India to interfere “in a Conservative Party leadership campaign.”

“Pierre Poilievre is the only person who can clarify the situation regarding the Conservative Party and the possible favours granted to foreign interests,” wrote Ms. May.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet has already indicated that he wants to obtain security clearance to examine the secret documents. He is in the final stages of obtaining this approval, according to his press secretary, Joanie Riopel.