Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians should be wary of political leaders who claim their parties are not at risk from foreign interference.
After reading an uncensored, classified report from the National Security Intelligence Parliamentary Committee (NSICOP) last week, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh suggested to reporters that his party’s lawmakers shouldn’t worry.
In an interview with CBC Power and politics On Monday, Trudeau cast doubt on that assertion.
“I was not aware that Jagmeet had said such a thing,” the chief minister said after a long pause. “I would be wary of any party leader drawing such a conclusion.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was responding to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s statement in an interview with CBC’s “Power and Politics” host David Cochrane that no one in the party was influenced by foreign interference.
Two weeks ago, NSICOP (a cross-party committee of MPs and senators) released heavily redacted documents alleging, based on intelligence, that some MPs had “semi-knowingly or knowingly” participated in foreign efforts to interfere in Canadian politics.
Trudeau did not respond to a question about whether any members of his party were named in the NSICOP report.
“What I’m suggesting is that interference with our legislators is bipartisan and comes from a variety of places,” he told host David Cochran.