(Bloomberg) -- The leader of Canada’s third-largest national party said some of the country’s lawmakers were “traitors” who should be banned from Parliament and face prosecution after he read a classified report on foreign interference in the democracy.
“What they’re doing is unethical, it is in some cases against the law, and they are indeed traitors to the country,” said Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party.
Singh spoke on Thursday after reading an unredacted version of a report on foreign interference from Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. He declined to share the names of lawmakers allegedly accused in the report of working for foreign states, saying that doing so could jeopardize national security efforts.
A redacted version of the document was published on June 3 and said that China and India are the biggest perpetrators of foreign meddling. NSICOP is a senior, cross-party group of lawmakers with “top secret” security clearances.
The NDP supports Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in a Parliamentary confidence deal, but Singh accused the country’s leader of being soft on foreign interference.
Foreign Interference
“It’s clear that he accepted a certain level of knowledge of foreign interference and didn’t do anything,” Singh said at a press conference on Thursday, adding that the prime minister delayed swift action “and doing so sends a message that some level of interference is acceptable”.
A representative for Trudeau didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Canada is holding a public inquiry into foreign interference which last month concluded in an interim report that there were attempts from foreign actors, particularly China, to sway its elections in 2019 and 2021. The report said those efforts did not affect the outcome of the elections.
Read More About the Allegations of Foreign Interference
Trudeau ordered the hearings after media reports cited classified intelligence memos that Chinese meddling may have helped certain Liberal Party candidates get elected.
In his remarks about Trudeau, Singh referred to an alleged incident described in the report: In 2019, Liberal officials were notified by Canada’s spy agency CSIS about allegations of possible Chinese efforts to influence a nomination contest for a Liberal seat. After receiving caveatted information, and being advised by his campaign director not to remove the candidate, Han Dong, Trudeau did not intervene.
Dong, who was eventually elected, has rejected the accusations. He later resigned from the Liberal Party.
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