Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said it was time for her fellow party leaders to have an “adult conversation” about the foreign interference report that was released earlier this month and has been at the center of debate in Ottawa for the past two weeks.
“I think the conversation has to take place in a safe space where we all have top secret security clearances and can discuss things with each other without media scrutiny,” she said.
“Then I think we can continue the work of actually putting in place the types of protections that we need.”
On June 3, the National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a cross-party committee of MPs and senators with the highest level of security authority, released heavily redacted documents alleging, based on intelligence reports, that some MPs had “semi-knowingly or knowingly” participated in foreign efforts to interfere in Canadian politics.
The report also said foreign interference targeted federal party nominations, leadership elections and other low-level politics.
So far, Prime Minister Theresa May and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh are the only two opposition leaders to have read the uncensored report.
At separate press conferences last week, Prime Minister May and Prime Minister Singh gave starkly different impressions of the report.
May said she was relieved to know that none of her MP colleagues had knowingly betrayed the country, a position she maintained on Monday.
“I state clearly again that I have read the entire unredacted report. [and] “At least in the uncensored report of the Congressional National Security Intelligence Committee, the word treason does not apply to a sitting member of Congress,” she said. “They reviewed 33,000 pages of intelligence before coming to that conclusion.”
“There’s no need to create an atmosphere of McCarthyism. There’s no need for members of Congress to create an atmosphere of witch hunting.”
Singh said Thursday that he is even more disturbed after reading the report and is “more convinced than ever” that some MPs are “willing participants” in foreign efforts to interfere in Canadian politics.
An NDP spokesman later said Singh’s comments did not confirm or deny that any of the MPs named in the report are currently serving as MPs.
Prime Minister May sees no contradictions in Singh’s report
May said on Monday she was confident in her understanding of the report and saw no major discrepancies between her interpretation and that of Singh.
“I think we can make progress if we can sit down together and discuss it, go into detail where there are differences in interpretation. You can’t do that in a press conference, you can’t do that on the floor of the House of Representatives without risking going into intelligence territory that has to be kept secret,” she said.
Top stories this week: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he was more alarmed than ever after reading the uncensored report on foreign interference, but Elizabeth May said she was relieved; Pierre Poirievre was forced to state his position on capital gains tax changes; plus, a by-election runoff took place in Toronto.
To read the report, party leaders with proper security clearance will be sent alone into a secure room, without any electronic devices or paper and pen.
“This is an exercise that requires rigor and attention to detail,” May said.
“That’s why I’m concerned that there could be a back and forth where one person from one party says one thing and another person from another party says another thing.”
Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said he had inquired about obtaining security clearance to view the report.
So far, Conservative leader Pierre Poirierbre has resisted calls for him to obtain security clearance to read the classified report.
Trudeau concerned about report
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday expressed concern about some of the report’s findings.
“There are some conclusions in the report of the Parliamentary National Security and Intelligence Committee with which we do not fully agree,” Trudeau told reporters at the end of a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland.
He did not specify the nature of his concerns.
Trudeau referred to earlier comments by Public Security Minister Dominic Leblanc, who expressed concern about NSICOP’s interpretation of the intelligence report.
On the day the report was released, LeBlanc suggested it omitted important context and failed to acknowledge “all the awareness-raising work that has been done to inform members of Congress about the threat of foreign interference.”
Trudeau said the fact that May and Singh reached different conclusions on the same report was “vindicating” the government’s concerns.
