It is now up to the judge of the Court of Appeal of Quebec, Marie-Josée Hogue, to decide what more can be said about federal parliamentarians who have collaborated with foreign states, announced the commission that it leads Monday.
The Hogue Commission sets itself the task of “shedding light on the facts and events mentioned in the CPSNR report [Comité des parlementaires sur la sécurité nationale et le renseignement] regarding the role that certain parliamentarians may have played, knowingly or unknowingly, in foreign interference activities,” said a press release.
Its mandate does not need to be expanded, it is written, since it already includes documenting any interference affecting “directly or indirectly the democratic processes of Canada”.
The Trudeau government lined up last week behind the Bloc Québécois’ proposal to let the independent commission decide on the relevance of making public the identity of deputies or senators suspected of foreign interference by the intelligence services.
The leader of the Green Party of Canada, Elizabeth May, speculated that elected officials currently sitting in Ottawa may have been simply “stupid” in accepting assistance from foreign governments when they were appointed. She tried Monday to reconcile the sometimes contradictory reading of a redacted report made by Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
Only these two opposition elected officials have so far had the opportunity to read the full version of a report, written by their peers, which included the shattering revelation according to which parliamentarians “knowingly helped” foreign state actors.
“Stupid, unethical, idiot… you can use several words to describe someone who allows someone to come and help you with your nomination […] without asking any questions,” said the leader of the fifth party in the Commons at a press briefing.
She maintained her reading of the report, according to which no current elected official has betrayed their country by actively collaborating with a foreign government in an interference operation. That a handful of elected officials currently serving would be targeted by less serious allegations. Allegations would also affect provincial and municipal politicians, as well as candidates in party leadership races, notably in the Conservative Party of Canada.
Mr. Singh said he was much more concerned when he read the unredacted version of the report. He reaffirmed that a “certain number” of federal MPs would definitely have “knowingly helped” foreign governments, but his office then clarified that he was not necessarily talking about MPs currently sitting in Parliament.
While in Switzerland on Sunday, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, alluded to the fact that these two party leaders drew different conclusions from the same report to demonstrate that the committee of parliamentarians on national security was able to he too makes errors of judgment on the subject of foreign interference.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, has taken steps to also obtain the security clearance necessary to read the report. The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, has not shown such an intention until now.
The Hogue Commission specifies that it has access to all the secret information on which the committee of parliamentarians on national security was based. In a preliminary report in May, Justice Hogue concluded that foreign interference tainted nomination races, and thus undermined public confidence in democratic institutions. Its final report is expected by December 31, 2024.