SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 169 - Mar/20/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/20/23 2:44:01 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, China's interference is the greatest threat to democracy and national security. That was the blunt statement made by CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, last Friday. The government's response should, at the very least, be on par with CSIS' fears, yet appointing a special rapporteur without a mandate or timeline does not rise to that level. At best, this is a case of wasting time until the special rapporteur comes to the only appropriate answer. At the end of the day, there is only one answer, one transparent and non-partisan solution, for combatting foreign interference. Will the government finally launch a transparent and independent public inquiry?

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Context: House Hansard - 169 - Mar/20/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/20/23 2:45:24 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, if they want to know what independence looks like, they should be asking us. It would be easy to criticize Mr. Johnston's appointment as special rapporteur, but that would be letting the government off easy over its most significant ethical failure. CSIS is saying this is the greatest threat to national security, yet the government is choosing to cover it up. Seemingly unaware that foreign interference is spreading, it is choosing to buy time. To put it bluntly, there are only two possible conclusions to the special rapporteur's review. The first is to sweep the whole business under the rug, and the second is to propose an independent public inquiry, which is what everyone is asking for. Why not cut to the chase, be ethical for once and launch the inevitable inquiry?

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Context: House Hansard - 169 - Mar/20/23

Mr. Kody Blois (Kings—Hants, Lib.)

Mar/20/23 4:58:07 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of partisan jabbing back and forth, but I do want to ask a sincere question. The member mentioned MI5. That security intelligence agency, on the basis of information that must have become overwhelming, made a decision to go to the Speaker of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom to present those allegations moving forward. However, we talked a little bit today about the idea of evidence and intelligence gathering and actual strong, demonstrable evidence that something is indeed true. I am curious, because the member is quite involved in these types of matters in Canada, what that process would look like. Is CSIS allowed to perhaps come to the Speaker of this House of Commons and be able to do that if, on a balance probabilities, it felt the evidence was strong enough that it could do what happened in the United Kingdom? If not, is that something the member would perhaps like to see moving forward, or perhaps something the special rapporteur could recommend for all of us as parliamentarians to make sure that those agencies have that ability, without undermining the intelligence work that goes on, to actually gather the said information?

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Context: House Hansard - 169 - Mar/20/23

Hon. Michael Chong

Mar/20/23 4:59:21 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, there is a great BBC article on the case of Christine Lee, dated July 19, 2022, entitled, “Why did MI5 name Christine Lee as an ‘agent of influence’?” I encourage the member and others to read that article because it explains the tactics behind MI5 going public with this information. To answer his question, at the end of the day, CSIS cannot go public with any information to the Speaker of the House of Commons, to individual members of Parliament or to political parties or candidates without the express authorization of the Prime Minister. What has been happening is that the Prime Minister has refused to grant this authorization for CSIS to go public with the details of these foreign interference threat activities. That is why it is so critically important that we use the tools of this House and its committees to compel testimony from individuals like Ms. Telford and others and get them to answer questions about what exactly is going on. We can then heed the advice of Five Eyes intelligence experts to use sunlight and transparency to publicly reveal the details of what is going on.

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Context: House Hansard - 169 - Mar/20/23

Ms. Monique Pauzé (Repentigny, BQ)

Mar/20/23 5:32:04 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, in response to the question asked by my colleague from Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, the member asked if we believe in the measures that have been put into place since the events. I would like to ask him if he believes in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS. It has approached the government time and time again, and time and time again, the government has simply done nothing. Does the member believe in CSIS?

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