Report points finger at parliamentarians

Elected officials alleged to have acted at behest of foreign actors

- STEPHANIE LEVITZ, TONDA MACCHARLES AND RAISA PATEL

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said allegations made in a report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians were the result of intelligence being interpreted without the necessary context.

Some Canadian parliamentarians are doing the bidding of hostile foreign states, their own House of Commons and Senate colleagues allege, in an explosive new report that raises questions about what action the Liberal government has taken on the ongoing challenge of foreign interference.

The report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) goes beyond the scope of previous probes into foreign interference in Canadian democracy, alleging numerous instances of elected officials acting at the behest of foreign governments.

Those allegations prompted questions on Parliament Hill Tuesday about why the report did not name those it raised suspicions about, and about how an already fractured and divisive Parliament is supposed to function when some of its own members have raised suspicions about others.

Here’s a look at what the report alleges, and what’s happening in response.

What’s the report all about?

The MPs and senators from all parties who sit on NSICOP have top-secret security clearance and are permanently bound to secrecy about what they learn while reviewing national intelligence and security matters.

The committee was tasked with a review of foreign interference last year in the wake of media reports raising questions about the Liberal government’s willingness to tackle foreign interference during the last two federal election campaigns.

NSICOP, however, decided to go broader, in part because it had studied foreign interference before. Rather than just focusing on elections, it looked at the larger issue of interference in what it called “democratic processes and institutions.”