New Delhi: Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is facing pressure from Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, the commissioner of the Foreign Interference Commission for submitting redacted records. The commission is investigating claims of foreign interference in Canada’s federal elections, namely the 2019 and 2021 elections.
While it was earlier claimed that the commission would be given full access to all relevant documents, PM Trudeau’s government has cited confidentiality as they submitted redacted documents and withheld a few, Globe and Mail reported.
The fact that documents have been redacted was mentioned in a footnote in the initial report of inquiry. The commission however maintains that talks are ongoing with the government and they have “nothing to add at this time”.
According to the Privy Council Office (PCO) comments to the Canadian media, “approximately 9 percent of the 33,000 documents provided by the government contain one or more redactions. Other documents covered entirely by these exemptions have not been provided to the commission”.
The PCO’s media relations manager Pierre-Alain Bujold maintained that “cabinet confidentiality is (the) cornerstone of the Westminster system of government that is protected by convention, common law, and legislative provisions” and necessary for effective functioning of the cabinet and so information that can come under solicitor-client privilege or cabinet confidence have been withheld.
The Canadian Evidence Act safeguards cabinet confidentiality. It allows the cabinet to refuse disclosure of information before a court or other judicial and non-judicial body or person.
Concern has risen that when the intelligence body can share all documents, the government should do so as well. Invoking the emergencies act, says Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, cabinet confidence documents can be disclosed. “If the Trudeau cabinet continues to hide records from the inquiry, Canadians are justified in assuming that disclosure of the records would make the cabinet look bad and that is why the records are being kept secret,” he told Globe and Mail.
Also read: Canada minister denies report of India delaying permission for Trudeau’s plane to land in Amritsar
An update on Canada’s public inquiry
An initial report of the inquiry into foreign influence launched in September last year was made public on 3 May. In this report, Chairperson Justice Hogue, a private practice attorney turned judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal, said, “Acts of foreign interference did occur during the last two federal general elections, but they did not undermine the integrity of our electoral system.”
Trudeau in his statement to the commission last month had also claimed that foreign interference did not affect the Canadian elections.
The report also addressed how information about foreign interference concerns circulated within the government apparatus and the actions that were taken in response. “I have not found evidence of any actions taken in bad faith, but I have found that there were some communication problems and a certain lack of understanding of the role that everyone plays, or should play, in combating foreign interference,” said Justice Hogue in the report.
While the report is preliminary, a second stage of the inquiry is supposed to begin soon. It will include examination and assessment of the capacity of relevant federal departments, agencies, institutional structures, and governance processes.
The first phase focused on the possible “interference that China, Russia, and other foreign actors may have engaged in, and any impact it may have had on the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.”
The Commission has introduced a public consultation process where the public is mobilised to share their experience, especially those belonging to ethnic, cultural, and diaspora communities. The portal will be expanded to entries in languages other than English and French.
Also read: 4th Indian arrested in Canada in killing of Sikh separatist Nijjar, charged with murder & conspiracy