The thing is, I think they can’t. There’s probably a top secret investigation being conducted and it could jeopardize it.
They literally cannot. I found this out through reading a different article.
“The report comes from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, known as NSICOP, which is made up of MPs and senators from all parties.
If any member of the committee were to disclose publicly what they know, they could face years in prison.”
Disclose the names of MPs who committed treason: go straight to prison
Commit treason: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hmm.
The RCMP is not commenting on whether they are investigating or not, as someone else pointed out there are likely things going on that will come to light later, but yeah, this whole thing is stupid.
If the report concluded that they wittingly aided foreign participants to interfere with Canadian politics they should be held accountable.
With that being said, I really don’t give a shit if they reveal the names or not though until they actually make arrests. They are turning this into a spectacle to further their own goals and it’s exhausting.
I don’t blame anyone for wanting to know the information about this up-front. We would absolutely not be here talking about this issue, with pdf copies of a detailed, public NSICOP report if not for a whistleblower who acted well outside the established channels to alert Canadians to institutional inaction on foreign interference. The NSICOP report actually admits as much.
The established system is not functioning as it should, and the current government has shown not only limited interest, but active unwillingness to do what’s right when it comes to foreign interference. Knowing these things, and then being scolded to “Wait for the system to work as intended”, is brutal. We don’t have reason to believe that the system will actually work as intended. The current government is to blame for allowing this erosion of trust, and if they’re tired of hearing “tell us the names”, they shouldn’t have sat on intelligence advice for 6 years. This situation would be playing out completely differently if the current government had even a slightly positive track record on dealing with foreign interference.
We deserve to live in a society where MPs who wittingly take part in the subversion of Canadian democracy can expect to be promptly imprisoned. Instead, we live in a society where it’s not unthinkable that nothing further will happen or be disclosed about this issue.
Yeah I agree with what you’ve said but we also deserve to live in a society where corruption hasn’t become legalized through lobbying and where politicians are incentivized to sabotage meaningful progress for their personal gains, but here we are. You can wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up first.
Making a political and public spectacle of this is clearly for political gain. They all know the names cannot legally be released at this time and the reason they are doing this to piss people off to get more votes in the next election, and it’s working.
I agree they are a train wreck when it comes to political interference, and that is alarming, but if you think any other ruling government wouldn’t be doing the same shit or worse then we don’t live in the same world.
I’m not condoning anything they’re doing, but I think that if the opposition gave a shit as much as they claim to, they would obtain the the security clearance they have been offered and get the names and push for criminal investigations. They have intentionally not done that so they can continue to weaponize this for their own gain. That is why I wish they would just stfu about this already and do something.
Agreed - “do something” is the way forward here. That said, every day the Liberals take heat on their inaction on foreign interference, the profile of the issue rises. And I think in the big picture, that’s good for Canadian democracy. Hopefully it leads parties to take stronger and more detailed stances in their platforms for combating election interference. But there I go wishing again…
Like everyone else, I too am baffled that security clearance is the hill that Poilievre is willing die on. Makes him look like just another House pugilist who is dug in on a stance and deaf to context and reason.
FWIW, I think the NDP has had consistently reasonable and principled stances on this issue since the CSIS leak. I like the cut of their jib on this. So, I think there’s good reason to believe that they’d be doing far better on this file than the Liberals. I understand the “every party sucks” mentality, but I don’t actually think it’s true in this circumstance.
Yeah you’ve got a point there the NDP have seemed to be both consistent and concerned about the allegations which is a plus for them.
I don’t really think every party sucks, I think the problems stem from the current system being busted.
I don’t have the answer but something where all parties work together repenting the Canadians who voted for them instead of chasing elections and short sighted/term goals might be a step in the right direction.
As posted yesterday. At this point news outlets is purposely just churning a specific narrative.
The Public Safety Minister insisted that federal law prevents the government from releasing further information about the people at the centre of those allegations, and he urged party leaders to instead get their own classified briefings and said Canadians should have confidence that police can investigate and lay charges when warranted.
So far, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has declined to accept a briefing, saying it would muzzle him. Instead, he says the names should be released by the government.
The House partisan gamesmanship needs to be ignored if we’re going to be serious about national security and sovereignty. Canadians deserve to know if their member of Parliament wittingly aided a foreign interference operation. We need to know right now. The notion that an election could occur while undisclosed traitors are on the ballot? This would be catastrophic.
There are absolutely no excuses for the current government’s horrific file on foreign interference:
- Not already having a foreign agent registry in place
- Not acting on the NSICOP report immediately
- Attempting to discredit the NSICOP report
- Voting against transparency and accountability on this issue at every opportunity
- Threatening a sequel to the ‘Special Rapporteur’ circus by suggesting that an ‘internal review’ will somehow be satisfactory
- Failing to say something even as simple as ‘Members compromised by a foreign power should be removed from Parliament’.
There’s no good reason for any of it, and their inaction is an open invitation to China, India, and others for further interference.
It’s impossible to agree with Minister LeBlanc. Canadians cannot have confidence that police can investigate and lay charges when warranted. The NSICOP report details how our system is configured in such a way as to make that difficult or impossible.
So Pierre wants the government to name names.
But refuses to get the clearance that they have so they he can see the names himself…
Because if he gets the clearance he won’t be allowed to share the information…
The clearance that they have… That is preventing them from releasing the names.
Did I miss something here? If Pierre is expecting them to break the law by revealing names, and they won’t, why doesn’t he step up, get the clearance and then break the law himself?
What you’re missing is that the minister that can make sharing the names legal via changing the required clearance is part of the government that refuses to do just that.
Tell me more.
I’m gonna take just a completely wild random shot in the dark and say “yes, they are.”