Canada report on foreign interference: no evidence of ‘traitors’ in parliament
Canada report on foreign interference: no evidence of ‘traitors’ in parliament
Share:
Commission finds democratic institutions ‘robust in the face of foreign interference’ but some MPs behaved ‘naively’. Canada’s democratic institutions are “robust in the face of foreign interference” attempts and there is “no evidence of ‘traitors’” in the country’s parliament, a landmark report into election meddling has found.
But the commission’s lead said on Tuesday that the federal government should take steps to better safeguard democratic institutions and better inform the public of foreign interference threats. In her final report on foreign interference in Canada, Marie-Josée Hogue, a leading judge, rebutted a previous survey by the country’s intelligence watchdog which alleged that lawmakers had been “witting or semi-witting” participants in foreign meddling – although she concluded that some were found to be “behaving naively” and displaying “questionable” ethics.
In June the all-party national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians warned that some parliamentarians had accepted bribes and shared information with foreign intelligence officers. At the time, various politicians used the vague nature of the allegations to tar opponents as compromised by foreign powers.
“I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged [in] or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference,” the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said as part of his sworn testimony during the inquiry.
