The NDP has objected to a motion to quickly adopt new legislation to counter foreign interference in elections, saying the Conservatives acted in “bad faith” by adding terms that had not been previously agreed upon.
The Conservatives had said they would work to quickly pass the recently tabled government’s Bill C-70, which proposes measures to increase resilience against foreign interference. On May 28, Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, urging him to expedite passage of Bill C-70 before the next election
During second reading of the bill on May 29, Mr. Chong presented a motion for the House of Commons to adopt the legislation by June 12.
“As our general election draws closer and as the life of this Parliament draws to an end, time is running out to strengthen the confidence Canadians have in our elections through legislation,” he said in the House.
Mr. Chong sought unanimous consent to give the public safety committee priority for House resources, to extend meeting hours, and to have all amendments submitted by June 10. After bills pass second reading, they are referred to committee for study.
Before Mr. Chong could finish reading his motion, New Democrat MP Peter Julian voiced opposition. “That was not what was agreed to,” he said.
“We had good-faith conversations on this motion,” added Mr. Julian’s colleague Alistair MacGregor. “We agreed, up to a certain point.”
Text of the full motion was not read into the record but was seen by The Epoch Times. It sought a number of other procedural measures to adopt the bill with a June 12 deadline.
Tory House Leader Andrew Scheer suggested to the House continuing the discussions on the motion “off-line” to find out why the NDP opposes passing the bill before a certain date. “That was the key part,” he said.
Mr. Julian said his party supports the bill at second reading and that “we all agree that this bill must be passed before the next election.” He then proposed a nearly identical motion to Mr. Chong, but which left out the June 12 deadline and other clauses.
Mr. Julian did not receive unanimous consent. “What the NDP is proposing is to not have an end date,” said Mr. Scheer.
“I am flabbergasted about the bad faith of the Conservatives in the House,” said Mr. Julian. “They draft something, there is agreement, and then they simply refuse to pass the motion that was agreed to.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Julian for comment but didn’t hear back as of publication time.
Despite disagreements on how to proceed, Bill C-70 passed second reading and was referred to the public safety committee for study. The committee held a first meeting on the bill May 30 with representatives from the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Justice, and from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
The bill seeks to update the Canadian Security Intelligence Act of 1984 to give CSIS new powers to obtain and exploit datasets. It would also allow CSIS to share information with non-federal government entities “for the purpose of building resiliency against threats to the security of Canada.”
The bill would also create a foreign influence registry and amend the Security of Information Act to create new foreign interference-related offences.
