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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 339

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 19, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 339 - Sep/19/24
Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC)
  • Sep/19/24 3:55:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, very briefly, I want to contribute to the question of privilege raised by the hon. member for Vancouver East concerning the special report of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. The hon. member is right to be worried about foreign interference, and especially about the Liberal government's abject failure to do anything about it. Indeed, several Conservatives, such as the hon. member for Wellington—Halton Hills and the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, as well as our former colleague Kenny Chiu, have also been targeted by the Beijing Communist regime's tactics. This committee's special report made a lot of sensational revelations about the extent of foreign interference in the federal political scene, many of which the hon. member cited in her intervention. In fact, all Canadians were shocked by the special report. There is one more revelation from the special report, which speaks to the very heart of why we should be worried about the Liberal Prime Minister's inexcusable failures to defend Canadian democracy from outside interference. The special report revealed in paragraph 126: In December 2019, the Clerk of the Privy Council sought the Prime Minister’s authorization to implement the Committee’s recommendations by having CSIS brief parliamentarians in the early weeks of the 43rd Parliament. The Prime Minister’s Office never replied formally to the recommendation. In December 2020, the NSIA returned to the Prime Minister to seek authorization for CSIS to brief parliamentarians.... The package for the Prime Minister included draft instruction letters to the Ministers of Public Safety and Defence to coordinate the briefings.... The Conservatives have recently come to learn that this project was not advice that was closely held to the Prime Minister and his most immediate advisers. The Privy Council Office has released, under the Access to Information Act, an unredacted version of the government House leader's 2019 transition briefing book, which also discusses the parliamentary briefing proposal. In November 2019, the Prime Minister's recently resigned Quebec lieutenant was informed, at page 27 of his briefing book: Pending a decision by the Prime Minister, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and PCO have prepared an unclassified, introductory briefing on foreign interference risks faced by parliamentarians. The briefing could be delivered to MPs and senators in sessions offered by the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Government House Leader) and the Government Representative in the Senate in the early weeks of the 43rd Parliament. Now we know that the public service was pushing at all corners of the Liberal government to make sure parliamentarians were alert to the threats around us, but those briefings were never held nor were they ever offered. NSICOP tells us that when he was asked why he never took action, “The prime minister responded that he thought that the Parliamentary Protective Service already briefs new parliamentarians about foreign interference.” If that is to be believed, that answer is dripping in ignorance, and it is ignorance in which the Prime Minister would prefer to keep Canadians about the threats posed by foreign interference in Canada's Parliament. Under subsection 21(5) of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act, the Prime Minister directed the committee to provide him with a revised report, revised to redact the names of the individuals involved. It is, frankly, unacceptable that any parliamentarian would wittingly aid a hostile foreign power to undermine our democratic process and elections, which every member of Parliament is sworn to protect. Canadians deserve to know if federal parliamentarians have knowingly engaged in activities on behalf of foreign governments that have undermined Canada's national interests. NSICOP's findings cannot be ignored, and we cannot trust the Prime Minister on this critical issue. That is why the Conservatives have been calling since June for the parliamentarians who have betrayed Canada's interests to be named. 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. This is what Canadians deserve. Anything less risks fuelling public suspicion about a cover-up of information known to the Liberal government about members of Parliament working for foreign states against the interests of Canada.
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