MPs across party lines voted unanimously on a motion to call on Justice Marie-Josée Hogue to investigate allegations that current and former parliamentarians have collaborated with hostile foreign governments.
The motion, which is non-binding, passed the House of Commons in a 322 to 0 vote Tuesday.
The Bloc Quebecois joined the Conservatives in calling on the existing commission probing foreign interference to be expanded to “allow it to investigate Canada’s federal democratic institutions,” including former and current MPs and senators.
“The Liberal government must understand that its duty is to protect us, not to protect itself. It must stop its strategy of avoiding answering serious questions and take off its pink-coloured glasses. Why? Because it’s not 2015 anymore,” said Bloc MP René Villemure.
Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer sent Hogue and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc a letter this week expressing “shock” about the allegations contained in the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians report on certain politicians’ involvement with foreign states.
The NSICOP report said the federal government has undermined the integrity of Canada’s parliamentary and democratic processes and eroded public trust.
According to the report, there are MPs and senators who are, “in the words of the intelligence services, ‘semi-witting or witting’ participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics,” with a former MP even meeting with an intelligence official in another country.
In his letter, Scheer wrote that the report’s “findings of the Special Report cannot be ignored.
“Canadians deserve to know if federal parliamentarians have knowingly engaged in activities on behalf of foreign governments that have undermined Canada’s national interest,” reads the letter. “These findings have not been weighed and assessed by an independent body. This must be done immediately.”
Scheer requested that the Hogue Commission “issue a finding of fact” for each case involving an MP who “knowingly”engaged in foreign interference activities and report any such evidence to Parliament before Oct. 1.
Scheer said that while these findings “would not constitute findings of criminal guilt,” it could serve as an “aid” to the House of Commons, the Senate, political parties whose members were found to be implicated, and most importantly to the Canadians public.
“If Canadians are to continue to have faith in their federal democratic institutions, they need to know who has broken their oath and betrayed their trust,” wrote Scheer.
Hogue leads the commission charged with examining allegations of foreign interference into the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, primarily by China, India, and Russia.
She released her interim report last month, in which she stated she did not believe that whatever election interference occurred was enough to undermine the integrity of the elections overall, but did conclude that it likely affected the result of a specific riding.
However, Hogue did not have access to all records pertaining to the alleged interference as the Trudeau government chose to withhold some.
Of the documents it decided to hand over, many were redacted.
The Liberals cited cabinet confidentiality as the rationale behind their decision to withhold and redact documents.
Initially, the Commission into Foreign Interference was promised that it would have complete access to all secret documents and “all relevant cabinet documents,” regardless of their sensitive nature.
“Justice Hogue will have full access to all relevant cabinet documents, as well as all other information she deems relevant for the purposes of her inquiry,” said LeBlanc last September at the time of the inquiry’s announcement.
The Liberals have since refused to release the list of names that were redacted in the report.
