Justice Marie-Josée Hogue has noted in her interim report on foreign interference in Canadian elections that the Liberal Government is redacting and withholding cabinet documents, preventing her from fulfilling her job.
It comes after Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc assured that the Commission into Foreign Interference would have “all relevant cabinet documents,” even if sensitive information couldn’t be publicly disclosed.
Despite this promise, the government has invoked cabinet confidentiality to withhold and redact certain records, including the Privy Council Office (PCO), which answers directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
As reported by The Globe and Mail, Justice Hogue noted in her May 3 report that “discussions as to the application of these privileges is ongoing.”
The PCO confirmed that 9% of the 33,000 documents given to the inquiry contain redactions.
However, the exact number of completely withheld documents remains undisclosed.
The May 3 “initial report” from Justice Hogue concluded that the Chinese Communist Party interfered in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections, and may have flipped some ridings, but says the overall result would have been the same.
Liberals called out
Dan Stanton, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service manager and current director at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute, criticized the withholding of documents: “If things are withheld from the commissioner, then that calls into question the effectiveness of the inquiry. The commissioner should be seeing everything, regardless of what is disclosed to the public. Otherwise, how can it be assessed?”
Michael Chong, Conservative foreign affairs critic, shared the same sentiment.
“If Justice Hogue is going to fulfill her mandate, she needs access to all the cabinet documents to find out who in the Trudeau government knew about PRC [People’s Republic of China] interference and what did they do about it,” he said.
Trudeau pleads ignorance
Trudeau finally caved to allow a public inquiry after months of pressure from the Opposition Conservatives, and a pseudo-report from a family friend.
During his testimony, PM Justin Trudeau pleaded ignorance, saying he wasn’t aware of concerns of Chinese foreign interference in the 2021 elections until after the media reported it.
Trudeau also said that he was not aware of China’s preference for a Liberal minority government, either.
Despite this, a new survey reveals that over half of Canadians believe that there has been significant interference from foreign governments have in Canadian elections.
