Christopher Nardi

OTTAWA – The federal government's $5,000 income eligibility requirements for CERB violated Charter equality rights but the breach was justifiable

OTTAWA — The head of the foreign interference commission says she is still pushing the government for records after the Liberals quietly released additional cabinet documents less than three weeks before the start of new public inquiry hearings.

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Foreign interference inquiry still pushing for documents despite quiet recent release by government Foreign interference inquiry still pushing for documents despite quiet recent release by government For months, the government and the inquiry have been arguing over an undisclosed number of documents Author of the article: Article content OTTAWA — The head of the foreign interference commission says she is still pushing the government for records after the Liberals quietly released additional cabinet documents less than three weeks before the start of new public inquiry hearings. Advertisement 2 Article content Foreign interference inquiry still pushing for documents despite quiet recent release by government Back to video For months, the Trudeau government and the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference (PIFI) have been arguing over an undisclosed number of documents and redactions withheld by Ottawa over claims of cabinet confidence. That's despite a promise by Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc last year that the inquiry looking into foreign interference against Canada would have access to all relevant cabinet documents to pursue its mandate. As the commission is set to launch its second phase of public hearings on Monday, the government appears to have granted at least one of Hogue's requests. In an order in council signed Aug. 30 and quietly posted online, the Liberals allowed the release of confidential cabinet documents that were specifically “prepared and used” by national security officials since Jan. 1, 2019, to brief cabinet “on matters related to foreign interference that are strictly operational in nature.” Advertisement 3 Article content The order does not specify how many additional documents will be released to the inquiry or how many redactions will be lifted. The order comes after Hogue noted in her first report published in May that she was challenging certain redactions in documents by the government, who cited “cabinet confidence, solicitor-client privilege or protection of personal information.” “Discussions as to the application of these privileges is ongoing,” she wrote in a footnote in the report at the time. But four months after the publication of her report and even after the government's latest cabinet document release, Hogue is still pushing for more records. Advertisement 4 Article content “Discussions with the Government on document production remain ongoing,” inquiry spokesperson Michael Tansey said in a short statement Wednesday when asked if the commissioner was satisfied with the new recent order in council. Tansey referred questions about the number of new documents being released or redactions lifted due to the order in council to the Privy Council Office (PCO). In a statement, PCO spokesperson Pierre-Alain Bujold did not say how many additional documents had been disclosed to PIFI but confirmed that discussions are ongoing about redactions. He also noted that the newly released information “ provides further detail into how operational information is shared within government.” Advertisement 5 Article content To date, the government has provided 48,000 documents to PIFI including four cabinet documents that had already been disclosed to other national security review bodies, Bujold said. PIFI is scheduled to resume public hearings Monday on the second portion of its study, this time focusing on the federal government's ability to detect, counter and deter foreign interference in Canada. In her first report published in the spring , Hogue concluded that foreign meddling had “tainted” the 2019 and 2021 federal elections and may have impacted the outcome of a few ridings, but had not affected the overall result. Advertisement 6 Article content Documents that contain cabinet confidences — information that is discussed at the cabinet table — are normally prevented from disclosure to allow ministers to “express their views freely during the discussions held in Cabinet.” But national review agencies and observers are increasingly concerned that the government is constantly expanding its definition of what is a cabinet confidence to prevent the disclosure of certain information. In interviews, two national security academics say the government's latest release order is very narrow and unlikely to provide all the information Hogue is seeking. “This is the government giving up very small ground on a very contentious issue,” said Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University assistant professor and former national security analyst with the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Advertisement 7 Article content Wesley Wark, a long-time national security observer and senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance (CIGI), said the government is trying to avoid looking like its “stonewalling” the inquiry but is far from “opening the floodgates” with its recent release. “I suspect that the number of reports going into cabinet from CSIS, CSE (Communications Security Establishment) and others that are ‘strictly operational in nature' is very few,” Wark said. “Most of what cabinet would receive would not be of that nature.” What is being released now is “a very narrow window into a much broader range of intelligence reporting, and it's not the most important window either,” he added. Wark and Carvin think the bulk of national security information brought to cabinet is likely strategic or policy advice, not operational. Advertisement 8 Article content The PIFI is far from the only national security review body struggling with the government using cabinet confidence claims to withhold information. In its most recent annual report, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) accused the Liberal government of “inappropriately” withholding all or part of over a thousand documents over cabinet confidence claims during its review of foreign interference. “The Committee is concerned that some departments and agencies may be inappropriately using claims of Cabinet confidences to avoid disclosing information to the Committee,” the report said. A PCO spokesperson replied at the time that it was “misleading” to say that the number of cabinet documents withheld was “anything close to that.” National Post [email protected] Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Foreign interference inquiry still pushing for documents despite quiet recent release by government Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings

OTTAWA – The Liberal government's move to block the sale of ammunition to the U.S. ultimately destined for Israel could violate a key Canada-U.S. military trade agreement, according to a defence procurement specialist.

OTTAWA — A brewing battle between the House of Commons and the federal public service over documents linked to the so-called “green slush fund” came to a head Monday, with Conservatives accusing the government of disobeying an order from MPs to provide unredacted records.

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Conservatives accuse Liberal government of disobeying order from House of Commons Conservatives accuse Liberal government of disobeying order from House of Commons The fall parliamentary session started with a procedural bang Author of the article: Article content OTTAWA — A brewing battle between the House of Commons and the federal public service over documents linked to the so-called “green slush fund” came to a head Monday, with Conservatives accusing the government of disobeying an order from MPs to provide unredacted records. Advertisement 2 Article content Conservatives accuse Liberal government of disobeying order from House of Commons Back to video The fall parliamentary session started with a procedural bang when Conservative MP Andrew Scheer told Speaker Greg Fergus that the government was violating MPs' parliamentary privilege and argued that it was in contempt of the wide-ranging powers of the House of Commons. “The government has disobeyed a lawful order of this House. It has failed to provide all of the papers which were formally required by this House and, in so responding, many papers were altered or outright suppressed through the redaction process,” Scheer said Monday afternoon. The battle stems from a June 10 Conservative motion adopted by the House of Commons ordering the government and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) — rebranded as the “green slush fund” by Conservatives — to provide a trove of unredacted documents on the troubled fund to the House of Commons law clerk, Michel Bédard. Advertisement 3 Article content The motion then called for Bédard to submit those records to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). But in the following months, over a dozen government departments and agencies either provided redacted documents or simply refused to comply with the order and withheld some or all their records. Parliamentary privilege grants the House of Commons tremendous power when it comes to fulfilling its duties. In a letter to Fergus this summer, Bédard said that its “power to send for documents is absolute and unfettered. It is a constitutional parliamentary privilege not limited by statute.” And yet, Scheer told Fergus, at least 16 government institutions provided redacted documents to Bédard over the summer. A handful of others, such as the Department of Justice, the Office of the Auditor General and the Communications Security Establishment, withheld many or all records. Advertisement 4 Article content “The Justice Department brazenly put the House on notice that some 10,772 pages of relevant documents were (quote) ‘completely withheld”,” Scheer said. “There is clear and convincing evidence before the House today that a contempt was committed by the government's flagrant and systematic disobedience to the House's June 10 Order,” he added. Scheer, a former Speaker, asked Fergus to determine if the government appeared to be in contempt of the House of Commons. If the Speaker finds there is potentially contempt, the MP promised to table a motion ordering that each infringing department and agency “get their act together” and provide all relevant unredacted documents within one week. Advertisement 5 Article content “For good measure, the motion would also express the House's view to urge the Prime Minister, consistent with the spirit of the principles of responsible government, to make his view clear and known to those delinquent government departments that he expects the House's order to be complied with this time. Fergus said he was taking the decision in reserve and asked the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois to make submissions as well. Last month, the National Post reported that the battle between the House of Commons and government institutions, namely Auditor General Karen Hogan, was brewing over access to SDTC documents. In a report published in the spring, Hogan concluded that one out of six projects funded by STDC that she audited were ineligible and that the organization had serious governance issues. On the day her audit was published, the government announced it was abolishing the fund and folding it into the National Research Council. Advertisement 6 Article content In a July letter to the House of Commons clerk, Hogan said she would not comply with the order because it risked compromising her office's independence. Separately, the RCMP wrote the Commons law clerk to quietly express his consternation about the June 10 motion and the trove of documents coming his way because it was “highly unlikely” he could use them to support potential criminal investigations. “There is significant risk that the Motion could be interpreted as a circumvention of normal investigative processes and Charter protections,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme warned. To date, both the RCMP and Auditor General Karen Hogan have said they've found no evidence of criminal activity at SDTC. National Post [email protected] Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Conservatives accuse Liberal government of disobeying order from House of Commons Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings

OTTAWA – Chinese government officials tried to influence Canadian MPs to vote against a 2021 motion condemning China's genocide of Uyghurs and even looked to build “profiles” on certain parliamentarians after the vote.

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : China tried to influence MPs to vote against Uyghur genocide motion, documents show China tried to influence MPs to vote against Uyghur genocide motion, documents show After the vote the People's Republic of China began efforts to 'build profiles on a number of MPs' who supported the motion Author of the article: Article content OTTAWA – Chinese government officials tried to influence Canadian MPs to vote against a 2021 motion condemning China's genocide of Uyghurs and even looked to build “profiles” on certain parliamentarians after the vote. Advertisement 2 Article content China tried to influence MPs to vote against Uyghur genocide motion, documents show Back to video That's according to a summary of intelligence by Canadian security agencies and departments that was tabled at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference (PIFI) on Wednesday. The document reveals that People's Republic of China (PRC) officials made “initial” efforts to influence an unspecified number of MPs to vote against the motion recognizing the country's treatment of its Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim minorities as “genocide.” The motion ultimately passed unanimously in the House of Commons. But after the vote, the document states the PRC began efforts to “build profiles on a number of MPs” who supported the motion. “This research may have informed the PRC's decision to impose economic sanctions on some of those MPs or may have informed other actions,” reads the unclassified summary of intelligence produced for the inquiry. Advertisement 3 Article content Those were just some of the examples of suspected or confirmed foreign interference efforts by China against Canadian MPs brought up during Michael Chong's testimony on Wednesday. The Conservative MP also revealed that in October last year he was approached by an individual in the street offering him “political support, assistance with elections, and political advice here on (Parliament Hill),” he told the inquiry. The twist: he realized shortly after that the individual was Haiyan Zhang, a former senior analyst at the Privy Council Office who was fired for being a suspected Chinese spy in 2003. But when Chong raised the encounter with government officials and asked if Zhang was still a “national security threat,” he was told they had destroyed all files regarding Zhang. Advertisement 4 Article content “It's another example of the government failing to provide information to members of Parliament to help them protect themselves against potential threats to Parliament and to our democracy,” Chong told reporters after his testimony. Chong has been a key figure in the government's controversial handling of foreign interference since 2023, when The Globe and Mail revealed that Canadian intelligence agencies knew for at least two years that the PRC had been collecting information about Chong as well as his family members in Hong Kong. Advertisement 5 Article content On Wednesday, the inquiry showed Chong a CSIS issues management brief dated May 31, 2021, that revealed that he and then Conservative MP Kenny Chiu were the target of foreign interference attempts by PRC officials. A summary of redacted information in the 2021 brief shows CSIS already knew that China was interested in Chong's relatives in the PRC, though the MP only found out in media reports in the spring of 2023. It was only in the hours following the publication of the story that Chong was offered a briefing by the prime minister, his staff and the CSIS director on PRC activities targeting him and his family. Chong was outraged that he wasn't informed by the government for years and described the Liberals' handling of foreign interference to date as “gross negligence.” Advertisement 6 Article content “I think they should be providing this information because it will allow those parliamentarians to take actions, to protect themselves, to be situationally aware. I think that's so important,” he said Wednesday. He was also shocked to find out that the information in 2021 was provided by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service to then Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, but that Blair never read it for undisclosed reasons. “It's inconsistent with the practice of this government, or alternatively, it's alarming incompetence not to be reading and actioning intelligence that is being sent up the chain,” Chong said. Chong said the government needs to release “much more” information about foreign interference to the public than it has in recent years. Advertisement 7 Article content He pointed to the fact that the government still hasn't significantly changed how foreign interference threats are shared with Canadians despite years of media revelations. “We're buried in a mountain of process,” he said. “This is not how our institution should function. This is not how Parliament should work. This is not how the government of Canada should treat threats to our national security. We're buried under process. This should have been dealt with a long time ago.” National Post [email protected] Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : China tried to influence MPs to vote against Uyghur genocide motion, documents show Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings

It could set the stage for an exceptional legal battle OTTAWA — The Liberals say the House of Commons exceeded its powers when MPs ordered

Published Sep 19, 2024 • Last updated 7 minutes ago • 4 minute read