Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says that while he plans to read the unredacted version of the intelligence watchdog report that’s been stirring up debate in Ottawa for more than two weeks now, he’s in no rush to do so.
Earlier this month, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a cross-party committee of MPs and senators with top security clearances, released a heavily redacted document alleging, based on intelligence reports, that some parliamentarians have been “semi-witting or witting” participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in Canadian politics.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh have read the unredacted, classified version of the report; both leaders already had the security clearances they needed to read the full report. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was given the original copy of the report months ago.
“They sent me a lot of paper to fill. I have not completed it yet. I’m at the end of a session. I’m not in a hurry,” Blanchet said during a news conference Wednesday in Ottawa.
“All I want is to make sure before the election that there is no member of Parliament in my caucus which would have been involved in any way with a foreign power.”
Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, says he will not say more after he reads the NSICOP report on foreign interference. Blanchet suggested that Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also should not have said anything publicly about the report after they read it.
Blanchet has said that, unlike Singh and May, he will not speak publicly about the contents of the report after reading it.
“I promise you there will be no show,” he told reporters.
“After I have read the report, I will not say more. I will say even less because I will be under the promise I will have made not to reveal the content of the report, something that Mrs. May and Mr. Singh should have understood better.”
May held a news conference after reading the unredacted version of the report last week. She said she was relieved to learn that none of her House of Commons colleagues knowingly betrayed their country.
A few days later, Singh told his own news conference that he was more alarmed after reading the report and “more convinced than ever” that some parliamentarians are “willing participants” in foreign states’ efforts to interfere in Canadian politics.
On Tuesday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan raised a point of privilege and called for the House of Commons to find a way to release the names of the MPs implicated in a report.
“The report did not provide any names and as such, all 338 members of this House, including those who have since left this chamber, are under a cloud of suspicion,” she said.
Blanchet said there are legal principles that need to be protected.
“If you give the name of people who have been accused of nothing and condemned for nothing, you will point them, affect them, maybe wrongfully. So one cannot reveal that,” he said.
“More than that, you would interfere with the inquiries being done by the intelligence services of Canada … so providing publicly the name might not be the best thing to do.”
The Conservatives have been pressing the Liberals to release the names of the MPs cited in the report on the floor of the House of Commons, where MPs enjoy parliamentary privilege.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has repeatedly rejected down those calls.
“We’re not able, by law, to announce a series of names,” he said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live.
“It’s completely irresponsible and it’s illegal.”
