Why aren't MPs tied to foreign interference being identified?
It's been 2 days since a bombshell report dropped in Ottawa claiming some MPs knowingly and wittingly helped foreign actors from India and China meddle in Canadian politics. Calls are growing for their names to be released, but the head of the intelligence committee insists he's not allowed to provide them. Every word, every sentence, every paragraph has been through a very significant and detailed reduction process. It is one that takes time. Right now, the membership of the committee and as its chair, the committee is not permitted to expand on the language in the review. The report was generated by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. That's a group of bipartisan MPs and senators who were asked to look into allegations of foreign interference in Canadian elections. Members of that group claim they're not legally able to release the names, but City News Parliament Hill correspondent Glenn McGregor says there is one way we could eventually learn who's involved. So we now have an impasse. We have this report alleging that there were parliamentarians who current or past parliamentarians, who were doing something that some people have said amounts to treason effectively, and yet we don't know who they are. One possibility is if this these matters were referred to, say the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate and they laid charges, then of course they would know. The government's position is that the report contains intelligence only, not explicit evidence of a crime.