More drivel from Trudeau

Pretending classified information can't be revealed to Parliament is nonsense

If you spend a few minutes watching CBC today, you are overwhelmed by the vitriol poured on Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre by Liberal hacks who sign on to the crap Trudeau (under oath) spouts in the review of foreign interference in Canadian politics and criminal acts by foreign agents in the country. Trudeau claims there are members of Parliament and former members who are implicated by information he has learned from CSIS and the RCMP and gloats that (a) Poilievre refused to obtain a security clearance to avoid being handcuffed by information given to him upon which he cannot take action without violating the official secrets act and (b) he has the information but won’t pass it on because that would violate the same act.

Bullshit.

Canada has a parliamentary committee called NSICOP, an acronym for the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliament, with ten members no more than five of which can be from the governing party in Parliament, but with three from the Senate and the membership decided by the Prime Minister, the Conservative membership is limited. Here are the members as of today.

NSICOP is supposed to be an independent committee and all members must hold a top secret security clearance. Members of the committee cannot disclose information they learned as members of the committee in open Parliament, a ruling the Ontario Supreme Court found unconstitutional putting parliamentary privilege above the obligations to NISCOP, a decision promptly overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal in Alford v. Canada (Attorney General), 2024 ONCA 306.

But that limitation on disclosure is limited to members of NISCOP who accepted membership on that committee cognizant of the burden it place on them to maintain confidentiality of the information learned.

Trudeau has a top secret clearance. NSICOP reports to Trudeau. Trudeau is not a member of the committee.

In 2018, NSICOP issued a report on foreign interference, substantially redacted in its public form, with its key findings labeled * * *.

But Trudeau’s claim that he can’t disclose the names of the persons implicated by the foreign interference information subject to secret classification is nonsense. In fact, the NSICOP report discloses that the Prime Minister directed NSIA to brief his Ministers and Members of Parliament on the *** labeled items before a visit with Indian officials.

It seems the Prime Minister can do what he wants, and what he wants is to make an issue of Pierre Poilievre’s refusal to obtain a security clearance that exposes him to information on which he is unable to take action owing to its security classification, rather than simply declassify the information and make it public. There are no limits on the power of Parliament to declassify information, and Trudeau controls Parliament.

This foreign interference issue is now a political football and Trudeau is a skilled quarterback using the issue as a tool to criticize Poilievre rather than to advance the interests of Canadians in finding out what is below the surface, who is involved in the foreign interference and why it should matter. One thing is certain - if it benefited the Liberals to disclose the information, it would be on the front pages of Canadian newspapers and a major story promoted by the Liberal funded CBC.