Interference Inquiry to Shed Light on Alleged Foreign Colluders, But No Names Will Be Released

Commissioner Justice Marie-Josee Hogue makes her way on stage to deliver remarks on the interim report following its release at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, in Ottawa on May 3, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Public hearings of the Foreign Interference Commission will resume next week and Canadians can expect to get new details about the parliamentarians who allegedly colluded with foreign powers.

No names will be disclosed, however, the commission said in a Sept. 13 public notice.

“As a result of its dual obligations to respect national security confidentiality and the rules of procedural fairness, the Commission cannot make any findings that might identify the individuals involved in the allegations,” says the notice.

The commission said it is working to have some of its findings released.

The commission began investigating the foreign collusion of politicians after the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) released the public version of its report in June.

The report says some MPs “began wittingly assisting foreign state actors soon after their election.” It mentions some have “proactively provided confidential information to Indian officials” and others have a “quid pro quo” relationship with the Chinese regime.

The commission said it reviewed the intelligence reports referenced in the NSICOP publication, the underlying information used to produce the reports, as well as other relevant information.

Senior government and intelligence officials were also interviewed behind closed doors about the related information and the investigations that generated said information. The commission said it intends to call these witnesses to testify publicly in the coming weeks.

More information could also be released by way of summaries of the officials’ in camera testimonies, within the limits allowed by national security obligations, the commission said.

Names

NSICOP’s June report sent shockwaves across the country, prompting the Conservative opposition to request the names of alleged foreign colluders be made public.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he had seen a “number of names” in intelligence products, adding that releasing them would be “simply irresponsible.”

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said her Liberal Party would do a “follow-up internally.”

Pressure to have the names released died off after the matter was passed to the Foreign Interference Commission for review.

The commission had released its interim report a month earlier in May, after holding a first round of public hearings in March and April.

With the testimonies from different stakeholders, including politicians and security officials, and the release of summaries of highly sensitive intelligence, the public was able to assess for itself the problem of foreign interference.

The intelligence leaks that appeared in the media in the months prior, which spurred the inquiry, were also corroborated in large part.

Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue concluded in her interim report that “China currently stands out as the most persistent and sophisticated foreign interference threat to Canada.”

Hogue said that while foreign interference didn’t impact who formed the government in 2019 and 2021, it could have impacted results in some ridings.

Second Phase

The first phase of the factual hearings focused on the past two federal elections, whereas the hearings beginning on Sept. 16 seek to focus on the present and the future, the commission said.

“The goal is to gain a better understanding of how Canada is dealing with foreign interference in its democratic processes, and how it could be doing better,” says the public notice. This will entail looking at the capacity of specific departments and agencies to counter the threat.

Some questions of interest that weren’t fully answered or that the commission finds need more examination could be raised again. “Some overlap is to be expected,” it said.

Some witnesses who testified in April will appear again in the coming weeks, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, and Liberal Party National Director Azam Ishmael.

Trudeau told the inquiry in April he chose to keep Han Dong on the 2019 ballot after Beijing-linked irregularities in the nomination contest in Don Valley North were brought to his attention. Dong, who went on to win the riding, told the inquiry he wasn’t aware of irregularities.

“A well-grounded suspicion is certainly warranting more reflection and followups, but also might not hit the necessarily very high threshold for overturning the result of a democratic event,” Trudeau said.

O'Toole said in testifying at the inquiry his party had lost up to nine seats due to foreign interference in the 2021 election. The more well-known case is the disinformation campaign targeting then-incumbent MP Kenny Chiu in B.C.

The first witnesses to appear on Sept. 17 include the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Tory MP Garnett Genuis, and Liberal MP John McKay. The two MPs are the Canadian co-chairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). They criticized the government in April for not advising them they had been targeted by a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group back in 2021.

Tory MP Michael Chong and NDP MP Jenny Kwan, both victims of interference by the Chinese regime, will testify for a second time on Sept. 18. O'Toole will also testify on that day.

Executives from the different parties represented in the House of Commons will testify on Sept. 19 and 20, including Ishmael for the Liberals and Mike Crase for the Conservatives.

A former Chinese spy who fled to Australia could also testify at the inquiry, according to the Australian public broadcaster ABC. The commission has not confirmed the matter.