(Ottawa) The reports are piling up. The intelligence collected by security agencies all points in the same direction: foreign interference is growing in the country. It manifests itself in a pernicious way in several forms.
The response from the Trudeau government is essentially the same. It is characterized by a kind of nonchalance that aims to minimize the scourge in the hope that worried minds will move on. This nonchalance, however, has become intolerable. Even for liberal elected officials.
The Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence (CPSNR) is the latest to present a hard-hitting report on foreign interference. This committee is made up of three Liberal MPs, two Conservative MPs, one Bloc Québécois MP, one NDP MP and three senators.
In its report tabled in the House of Commons on Monday, the committee is not kind to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government.
He also makes a brutal observation. According to committee members, the Trudeau government “knew in 2018” that the measures it had adopted to protect democracy “were not enough” to fight foreign interference.
“Half-consenting or voluntary participants”
The years have passed. The warnings have multiplied. But the Trudeau government has still not implemented a solid plan. Today, this inertia has a very high cost, according to the committee which has been chaired since its creation in 2017 by the Liberal MP for Ottawa South, David McGuinty.
“The delayed response to a known threat represents a serious shortcoming, which could have consequences for Canada for many years,” we can read in particular in the report of around one hundred pages.
“The consequences of this inaction include that the democratic rights and fundamental freedoms of Canadians, the integrity and credibility of Canada’s parliamentary process, and public confidence in the policy decisions made by the government have been undermined. Canada is only now beginning to see the implementation of additional measures to act on foreign interference activities,” the unanimous report also states.
For the first time since foreign interference made national headlines almost two years ago, the committee is putting the spotlight on elected officials and senators.
Some parliamentarians, according to “disturbing” information reviewed by committee members, are “half-willing or willing participants” in efforts by foreign states to interfere in the country’s affairs.
Examples ? Parliamentarians have accepted “knowingly or through willful ignorance” funds or benefits from foreign missions. Others have sought help from foreign missions to obtain support from a diaspora during the elections. Still others have provided foreign diplomats with inside information about the work or opinions of fellow parliamentarians, paving the way for pressure campaigns to change their opinions.
And others relayed information learned in confidence from the government to a known intelligence agent of a foreign state. The committee has not published the names of the parliamentarians who are suspected.
Some of these actions are illegal – an expert argued on Tuesday that we are dealing in this matter with cases of treason – but the police cannot do much.
For what ? Essentially because the federal government has still not resolved a gap that has long been deplored by investigators: the possibility of using information collected by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) as evidence in court.
The fact remains that this report has triggered a sort of witch hunt since its unveiling. Who are these deputies or senators who engage in these perfidious activities? Which political party are these deceivers affiliated with? NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh advocates a hard line. According to him, anyone who gave a helping hand to a foreign state to interfere in the affairs of the country must lose the privilege of sitting in the House of Commons or the Senate.
Torpor
In the hours following the publication of the CPSNR report, the Minister of Public Security and responsible for Democratic Institutions, Dominic LeBlanc, sought to minimize certain conclusions of the committee members. He appealed for caution, also stressing that there are elements “with which the government respectfully disagrees”.
Since the start of this affair, which is now being examined by a commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, the Trudeau government has stood out for its slowness in acting.
It took a CSIS employee to leak it on a daily basis The Globe and Mail a wealth of secret intelligence highlighting foreign interference activities on the part of authoritarian regimes like China to shake Justin Trudeau and his ministers out of their torpor.
The opposition parties had to raise their voices in the House of Commons for the government to set up a proper commission of inquiry. Previously, he attempted to sweep the controversy under the rug by appointing an independent special rapporteur, former governor general David Johnston – an exercise that proved a spectacular fiasco.
It also took a first report from the Hogue commission on the foreign interference activities of China, India and Russia, tabled on May 3, for the Trudeau government to finally table three days later a draft law to counter foreign interference. Bill C-70 would give new tools to CSIS and finally create a registry of foreign agents of influence – an essential tool to fight against this scourge.
But now the Trudeau government is engaged in a race against time so that all these measures come into force before the next elections, scheduled for October 2025. The opposition parties have offered their collaboration to accelerate their adoption.
This outstretched hand represents an important test for Justin Trudeau’s troops. Because if the Prime Minister appears before the electorate without having adopted new tools to fight against foreign interference, he will still have this heavy gold medal of nonchalance around his neck.