OTTAWA (Reuters) – The head of a Canadian political party said on Thursday that an intelligence report about some members of parliament acting as agents of other nations was concerning and that the offending lawmakers should be removed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been on the defensive since a committee of lawmakers focusing on security issues said in a heavily redacted report this month that some elected officials had been “intentional or semi-intentional” participants in foreign interference operations.
“I’m more alarmed today than yesterday” Jagmeet Singh of the left-leaning opposition New Democrats, said Thursday, after reading an unedited version of that report.
Singh, who as leader of a major party exercised his right to request greater security clearance to read the documents, said the report shows Canada is vulnerable to foreign interference and has undermined citizens’ trust.
“If there continue to be no consequences for MPs who knowingly help foreign governments act against Canadian interests, we will continue to be an easy target,” said Singh.
“Removing deputies who knowingly participate in foreign interference would have a deterrent effect on this type of behavior,” he added.
In the report, which was based on information from intelligence agencies, the committee of parliamentarians did not reveal any names but said India and China were the main foreign threats to Canada’s democratic institutions.
Singh also did not name any lawmakers, nor did he say how many were named in the report or whether any of them were sitting MPs, but added that the report gave him “no reason” to remove any members of his own party.
Ministers said that appointing lawmakers would break the law and that it would be up to the police to investigate.
On Monday, the Trudeau-led Liberal government, facing accusations that it is soft on security, gave in to opposition demands to submit the matter to an ongoing special inquiry to assess allegations of foreign interference in the last two Canadian elections.
The special inquiry, in an interim report, announced last month that it had found evidence of foreign interference in those federal elections, but said that voting results were not affected and that the electoral system was robust.
Canada’s top spy agency said last month that China’s persistent election interference had the potential to undermine Canadian democracy. Beijing routinely denies accusations of interference.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
