Latest news with #NationalSecurityandIntelligenceCommitteeofParliamentarians
Ottawa Citizen
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa South: David McGuinty posts a commanding win
The big question for Ottawa South from the moment the polls closed was the size of Liberal David McGuinty's victory. Article content Article content With almost 90 per cent of polls reporting, the area's longtime MP had garnered just over 65 per cent of the votes. Article content Speaking at his victory party, McGuinty said of those he met at the doors, 'I think what they told us was Canada was a project worth fighting for. We love our country, we love our community, we love each other, we stick together and build a country which is unequaled in the world.' Article content Article content In an interview with the Citizen, he noted people are 'concerned about our future, they're concerned about the economy. They're concerned about jobs and the future for their kids. Article content Article content 'They're concerned about housing and health care, and they want to come together in a way I've never seen before, to fight for Canada and build an even better and stronger one.' Article content He also had words about the future of the public service. 'How we move forward in terms of managing the public service will be important. I know that myself and my caucus colleagues in the region will come together to make sure that it's fair and transparent.' Article content McGuinty was an early supporter of Mark Carney as leader and prime minister. 'This is a serious moment, he said. 'It's a serious time. We need a serious prime minister and serious leadership, and I think that that's what he represents. In a quiet and a thoughtful and authentic way.' Article content Article content This is the eighth time McGuinty's name has been on the ballot. He has consistently won more than 40 per cent of the vote since he first ran in 2004 (winning more than 52 per cent in 2019, dropping to around 49 per cent in 2021). Article content If the McGuinty name is familiar, it's because the sprawling family has had a political presence since 1987, when McGuinty's father, Dalton McGuinty Sr., won the predecessor provincial riding. Dalton Sr. died in 1990 and his son Dalton was elected as MPP, later becoming Ontario premier between 2003 and 2013. Article content Article content David McGuinty, a lawyer, was the founding chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, president of the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and president and CEO of the Prime Minister's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, a government think-tank.
CBC
28-01-2025
- Politics
- CBC
5 things we learned from the final report on foreign interference
Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, commissioner of the public inquiry into foreign interference, issued her final report on Tuesday after conducting a 16-month investigation into how foreign actors have tried to interfere in democratic institutions and the electoral process in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. In her seven-volume report, Hogue detailed the evidence she gathered from hearing more than 150 witnesses since the Inquiry began in September 2023. Those findings reveal what she thinks are the greatest threat to Canadian democracy, how federal party leadership contests should be reformed and the challenges associated with interpreting intelligence. She also details why party leaders need to get security briefings and how cumbersome information sharing within government complicated efforts to respond to foreign interference attempts. The 'single biggest risk' to Canadian democracy Hogue wrote that while foreign states targeting parliamentarians has garnered much attention, the greater threat to Canadian democracy is the spread of misinformation and disinformation in the media and on social networks. She wrote disinformation "is noxious, and it is powerful. It poses a major risk to Canadian democracy. If we do not find ways of addressing it, misinformation and disinformation have the ability to distort our discourse, change our views and shape our society. "In my view it is no exaggeration to say that at this juncture, information manipulation (whether foreign or not) poses the single biggest risk to our democracy," she wrote. "It is an existential threat." In her report, Hogue wrote that the act of "transnational repression," when a foreign state monitors, intimidates and harasses immigrant communities in Canada to achieve its own national objectives, has become a "genuine scourge" to the democratic process in Canada. While her mandate did not task her with examining the full depth and extend of transnational repression, she said she learned enough during the public hearings to "sound the alarm that the government must take this seriously and consider ways to address it." "It would be challenging to overstate its seriousness, or the impact it has on individuals and our social fabric," she wrote, adding that the targeting of immigrant communities by foreign states is "one of the greatest strategic challenges to Canada's sovereignty and democracy. She said the federal government is making efforts in this area. The problem with the NSICOP report In June, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, NSICOP, released a report that said some elected officials in Canada were "semi-wittingly" or "wittingly" helping foreign governments interfere in Canada's democratic process. After the report was published, there were widespread calls for MPs who had read the report to identify the names of officials suspected for working to advance the interests of foreign governments. Hogue reviewed the NSICOP report and said that while it "does not name individual parliamentarians" it does make "strongly worded and unequivocally stated allegations against individual parliamentarians," based on intelligence documents. The report warns that while "intelligence can be extremely valuable in informing government and enabling it to develop policy … the frailties of intelligence make it dangerous to rely on" unquestioned. "This is particularly true for intelligence that may suggest misconduct by individuals, such as the involvement of individual parliamentarians in foreign interference activities," the report said. Hogue wrote the NSICOP report cast a "cloud of suspicion over all parliamentarians" and as a result contributed to "the erosion of Canadians' trust in their democratic institutions." "The situation is not as clear cut, nor as extreme, as the fears provoked by the NSICOP report," Hogue wrote. Shortcomings with information sharing Hogue wrote that while there were no "particular issues with the way in which information flowed" to senior decision-makers in the run up to, and in the weeks after, the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, there were still "shortcomings." "Information that should have reached the ministers and even the prime minister did not," Hogue said, adding that she could not determine why this happened. "The evidence did show, however, that the systems in place at the time were not particularly robust," she added. "There was no way of knowing who had received a particular report, whether those who had received it had read it and whether any actions had been taken as a result." Hogue wrote that in some cases she was left with the impression that people involved in sharing information about possible instances of foreign interference felt "they had fulfilled their duties as soon as they had delivered the information, without otherwise making sure that it had been received and understood." The commissioner wrote that she had no indication that "anyone acted in bad faith." Hogue wrote that the issues were systemic in nature and were made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hogue also wrote that while "the intelligence delivery system has been completely redesigned," since the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, she has not "been able to put this new system to the test to see how effective and resilient it is, but the evidence suggests that it is much more suitable than the previous one." Party leaders and security clearance Among her list of recommendations to combat foreign interference, Hogue says in her report that "leaders of all political parties represented in the House of Commons should be encouraged and given the opportunity to obtain top-secret security clearances as soon as possible after they become leaders." Hogue said in her final report that while the leaders of the Liberals, NDP, Bloc Québécois and the Green Party now have top-secret clearance, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre declined to get his, although his chief of staff has obtained clearance. She said that while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has directed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, CSIS, and other officials to try to inform Poilievre of possible threats to his party and its members, keeping the Conservative leader properly informed "may be challenging" unless he gets top-secret clearance. "The prime minister testified that chiefs of staff have more limited authorities compared to party leaders and are not accountable to the public in the same way," the report said. Reforming party leadership races Hogue provided a list of 51 recommendations for how the government can address concerns of foreign interference, some of which require legislative changes and others which could be implemented before the next federal election. Among her recommendations that she urges action on immediately, are reforms to the way party leaders are chosen in Canada, including:
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Foreign interference inquiry to release final report today
More than 16 months after it was established, the public inquiry studying foreign interference in Canadian elections will release its final report today. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue's report is expected to deliver recommendations on how federal government agencies can better protect against foreign meddling. It comes with all eyes on a federal Liberal leadership race that will end in early March and a federal election that could follow as soon as this spring. The commission's work happened in two phases. Its first phase looked into whether interference from China, Russia and others affected the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Hogue released an initial report in May, that found foreign meddling didn't affect which political party formed government in those elections. The report found it's possible the results in a small number of ridings were affected by foreign interference, "but this cannot be said with certainty." "Our systems remain sound," Hogue said after releasing that report. "Voters were able to cast their ballots, their votes were duly registered and counted and there is nothing to suggest that there was any interference whatsoever in this regard." The second phase, which saw public hearings in September and October, focused on whether Canadian government institutions are equipped to detect and counter foreign interference. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's testimony in that phase made waves when he said he has the names of Conservative parliamentarians who are involved in foreign interference. In response, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Trudeau of lying and called on him to release the names of MPs who have collaborated with foreign agents. Last June, a report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians found that some parliamentarians were "witting or semi-witting" participants in foreign meddling. The inquiry has access to that report. However, Hogue later warned not to expect her to name those parliamentarians because the report is based on classified information. The federal inquiry was triggered by media reports last year which, citing unnamed security sources and classified documents, accused China of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Hogue's original deadline was Dec. 31, but she was granted a one-month extension. The report is scheduled to be released late this morning.
CBC
28-01-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Foreign interference inquiry to release final report today
More than 16 months after it was established, the public inquiry studying foreign interference in Canadian elections will release its final report today. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue's report is expected to deliver recommendations on how federal government agencies can better protect against foreign meddling. It comes with all eyes on a federal Liberal leadership race that will end in early March and a federal election that could follow as soon as this spring. The commission's work happened in two phases. Its first phase looked into whether interference from China, Russia and others affected the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Hogue released an initial report in May, that found foreign meddling didn't affect which political party formed government in those elections. The report found it's possible the results in a small number of ridings were affected by foreign interference, "but this cannot be said with certainty." "Our systems remain sound," Hogue said after releasing that report. "Voters were able to cast their ballots, their votes were duly registered and counted and there is nothing to suggest that there was any interference whatsoever in this regard." The second phase, which saw public hearings in September and October, focused on whether Canadian government institutions are equipped to detect and counter foreign interference. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's testimony in that phase made waves when he said he has the names of Conservative parliamentarians who are involved in foreign interference. In response, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Trudeau of lying and called on him to release the names of MPs who have collaborated with foreign agents. Last June, a report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians found that some parliamentarians were "witting or semi-witting" participants in foreign meddling. The inquiry has access to that report. However, Hogue later warned not to expect her to name those parliamentarians because the report is based on classified information. The federal inquiry was triggered by media reports last year which, citing unnamed security sources and classified documents, accused China of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
