No list of traitors in secret report, May says

Green leader says intelligence briefing left her 'relieved' about fellow MPs

- STEPHANIE LEVITZ

FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

The first party leader besides Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to see the unredacted version of a report alleging MPs are knowingly complicit in foreign interference said Tuesday none of the “few” MPs named in the report are being disloyal to Canada.

But while Green Party Leader Elizabeth May declared herself “relieved” to be able to reach that conclusion, she said there are still jarring details in the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians’ most recent report that need to be addressed.

For one thing, May said a former MP accused in the report of providing Canadian intelligence to a foreign government ought to be fully investigated and prosecuted — though that former MP’s name isn’t among those revealed in the version she was permitted to see after receiving the appropriate security clearance on Monday.

The details she was privy to shouldn’t have any Canadians concerned — as she once was — that traitors are sitting in the House of Commons, May said.

“Are there currently MPs sitting with us in the chamber who would set out knowingly to sell out Canada for personal benefit? If there are, there’s no evidence of that in the full report,” she said.

She described what she saw as “a few named people” that “may have been compromised by foreign influence,” but that it falls “far short of what could be considered demonstrated disloyalty to Canada.”

But to assume that means there’s nothing to see in the committee’s report would be a mistake, she said.

The challenge now is for her fellow party leaders to avail themselves of the opportunity to reach that same conclusion, she said, and not let the issue descend into a “witch hunt.”