Some Canadian politicians collaborating with foreign governments to further own interests: report

Canadian intelligence services have gathered information indicating some MPs and senators are collaborating with foreign governments to advance their own interests, a new report says.

A security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians said Monday that it’s been told some Canadian politicians are working with foreign powers in what may be illegal behaviour.

“Unfortunately, the committee has also seen troubling intelligence that some Parliamentarians are, in the words of the intelligence services, ‘semi-witting or witting’ participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics,” the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) said in a report.

The body declined to name the politicians, saying it’s up to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate wrongdoing first.

It said some of this behaviour is unlikely to lead to criminal charges because of Canada’s failure to strengthen the ability to gather prosecutable evidence from intelligence. But examples include parliamentarians “communicating frequently with foreign missions before or during a political campaign to obtain support from community groups or businesses which the diplomatic missions promise to quietly mobilize in a candidate’s favour,” NSICOP said.

Some parliamentarians are also “accepting knowingly, or through willful blindness, funds or benefits from foreign missions or their proxies which have been layered or otherwise disguised to conceal their source.”

NSICOP said it’s received intelligence indicating some MPs and senators are “providing foreign diplomatic officials with privileged information on the work or opinions of fellow Parliamentarians, knowing that such information will be used by those officials to inappropriately pressure Parliamentarians to change their positions.”

Further, it said some parliamentarians are “responding to the requests or direction of foreign officials to improperly influence Parliamentary colleagues or Parliamentary business to the advantage of a foreign state” or “providing information learned in confidence from the government to a known intelligence officer of a foreign state.”

NSICOP is not a committee of Parliament but was created by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to provide more oversight on security matters.

In its findings Monday, NSICOP said countries such as China and India are targeting Canada’s democratic process with “sophisticated and pervasive” interference, but Ottawa has been slow to respond.

“This slow response to a known threat was a serious failure and one from which Canada may feel the consequences for years to come,” the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) says in the report made public Monday.

It said the distasteful conduct it outlined represent “particularly concerning examples of behaviour by a few Parliamentarians.” While some of the activity is unlikely to lead to criminal charges, the committee said “all the behaviours are deeply unethical and, the committee would submit, contrary to the oaths and affirmations Parliamentarians take to conduct themselves in the best interest of Canada.”

The report was ordered by Mr. Trudeau last year following reports by The Globe and Mail and Global TV on Chinese foreign interference and disinformation campaigns, drawing on confidential national-security sources and leaked secret documents.

Foreign interference in Canada is generally understood to mean attempts to influence public opinion, political decision-makers or elections and other political contents in ways that are clandestine, coercive or deceptive.

NSICOP said the Canadian government was aware as far back as 2018 that reforms it had implemented that year to safeguard elections were insufficient to tackle foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions. “It has yet to implement an effective response to foreign interference in democratic processes and institutions, the committee said, despite a significant body of intelligence reporting, consultations and prior urging by NSICOP.

The body, which is chaired by Liberal MP David McGuinty, said significant differences persist in the Canadian government on how to interpret the “gravity and prevalence” of the threat, including at what point action is needed.

NSICOP said that while Canada’s intelligence community increased its reporting to Ottawa on the threat of foreign interference, agencies and departments such as Privy Council Office, Global Affairs and Public Safety “did not adequately consider” the intelligence reporting or assessments supplied to them. Nor did they develop policy advice to address specific cases of foreign interference.

It also said it found ministers responsible for national security did not even request advice when confronted with warnings. “And the government was slow to put in place governance structures to consider intelligence and take decisions,” the report said.

It said the government is still failing to effectively talk to the Canadian public and other levels of government about the problem.

NSICOP is urging Ottawa to consider extending the jurisdiction of Elections Canada to include party nomination contests and party leadership conventions.

It’s urging a package of reforms to overhaul Canadian law to fight foreign interference including a foreign influence registry and amendments to the Criminal Code and Security of Information Act.

The Trudeau government last month introduced legislation, Bill C-70, that would accomplish many of these reforms but it remains unclear whether this bill will pass before Parliament rises for the summer.

This report was originally submitted to the prime minister in March, many weeks before the government tabled C-70.