OTTAWA (Reuters) – The leader of a Canadian political party said on Thursday that an intelligence report that some MPs were acting as agents of other countries was concerning and that offending lawmakers should be removed from office.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been on the defensive since a committee of lawmakers focused on security issues said in a heavily redacted report this month that some elected officials had “knowingly or semi-consciously” participated in operations. of foreign interference.
“I am more alarmed today than yesterday” Jagmeet Singh » the left-wing opposition New Democratic Party said on Thursday, after reading an unexpurgated version of the report.
Singh, who as leader of a major party exercised his right to request increased security clearance to read the documents, said the report showed Canada was vulnerable to foreign interference and weakened trust citizens.
“If there continue to be no consequences for MPs who knowingly assist foreign governments in acting against Canadian interests, we will continue to be an easy target,” Singh said.
“The removal of MPs who knowingly participate in foreign interference would have a deterrent effect on this type of behavior,” he added.
In the report, which relied on information from intelligence agencies, the committee of parliamentarians did not reveal any names, but said India and China posed the top foreign threats to Canada’s democratic institutions. .
Singh also did not name any lawmakers, nor say how many were named in the report or whether any were sitting MPs, but added that the report gave him “no reason” to remove members of his own party.
Ministers said appointing lawmakers would break the law and it would be up to police to investigate.
On Monday, the Trudeau-led Liberal government, accused of lax security, gave in to opposition demands to refer the matter to an ongoing special investigation to assess allegations of foreign interference in Canada’s last two elections .
The special inquiry, in an interim report, announced last month that it had found evidence of foreign interference in those federal elections, but said the voting results were not affected and that the electoral system was sound.
Canada’s top spy agency said last month that China’s continued meddling in the election risks undermining Canadian democracy. Beijing systematically denies accusations of interference.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil; editing by Bill Berkrot)
