QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Public Safety
National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians
September 19, 2024
Welcome, minister. Thank you for being here.
The government has provided an unredacted version of the report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, or NSICOP, on foreign interference in Canada’s democratic processes and institutions to all the leaders in the House of Commons, but the same courtesy has not been extended to the leaders of the recognized groups in the Senate. Will you correct that and make the unredacted report available to the leaders in the Senate?
Your Honour, that was a question that came up when I appeared before your Senate National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs Committee. You will appreciate that I am not the one who decides the distribution of this particular report, the unredacted version. There is a series of security requirements that are in place.
I raised that with officials of the Privy Council Office. That report is not a report that comes to me. I am not the decision maker in terms of how that report and to whom the unredacted version is released, but I’m happy to ask the question again.
It’s even more puzzling that there is a process that’s outside of your control and in the Privy Council Office. Somehow, Elizabeth May made the list, and leaders in the Senate did not.
Presumably, you’ve read the unredacted report yourself. Without disclosing any names, is any senator actually named in the report?
Senator, full points for asking the question — very clever. You say, “Oh, I wouldn’t want you to . . .” and, “But you know, if I were to . . . .” I understand what you’re saying. I’m obviously not in a position to answer that question.
To go back to the previous question, the NSICOP reports to the Prime Minister. It doesn’t report to the Minister of Public Safety. The Privy Council Office would be the group that would advise the Prime Minister in terms of that work.
I took notice of Justice Hogue’s comments about naming people as well. I saw her public comments. This is a sensitive area of concern. I think it would not be helpful — and it may be, in fact, illegal — to do indirectly what I can’t do directly.
