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Green Party co-Leader Elizabeth May has taken her request to see top-secret intelligence documents about foreign interference directly to Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, the new commissioner in charge of leading a public inquiry into the matter.
May’s office shared a letter she sent to Hogue on Thursday, asking to see the documents consulted by former special rapporteur David Johnston, the previous official tasked with determining the extent of foreign meddling into Canadian elections.
Appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Johnston published a summary report of his findings this spring, concluding a full public inquiry was unnecessary at the time.
He resigned from the job shortly thereafter, but not before recommending opposition leaders gain security clearance to view a series of intelligence documents deemed classified.
May obtained that clearance, but told journalists in August all she had been able to access was a series of citations and footnotes to documents she still could not read.
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday, she expressed concern Johnston’s work could be completely ignored, instead of getting folded into Hogue’s new mandate.
Hogue is being tasked with investigating interference by China, Russia, other foreign states and non-state actors in the 2019 and 2021 elections. She’ll also look at how intelligence flowed to decision-makers in the context of the past two elections.
“Justice Hogue’s mandate and challenge just got exponentially more difficult,” May said, in reference to allegations by Trudeau earlier this week about the Indian government being involved in the killing of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “Are we to deprive her of a good head start with at least having something to build on?”
“I think it would be helpful to review those documents,” she wrote to Hogue. “I think it would be an unnecessary waste should nothing of the first phase under the Special Rapporteur remain to assist you in your work,” her letter also noted.
Singh also wrote to Hogue
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is the only other opposition party leader who has taken up the offer to obtain security clearance in exchange for looking at the documents.
However, Singh has not done that yet, and his party said it now believes the work belongs with the public inquiry.
In his own letter on Tuesday, Singh had a different request for Hogue. He entreated her to specifically probe India in her work.
“I know that there are Canadians who are living in fear of their lives because of threats from foreign governments, like India,” he wrote.
“In my experience, as a Sikh-Canadian, there have always been suspicions that India was interfering in the democratic rights of Canadians. Yesterday’s announcement by the Prime Minister confirms these suspicions are valid,” he also wrote.
On behalf of Hogue, the Privy Council Office replied to CBC News in a statement about Singh’s request.
It said, “the killing of Mr. Nijjar is a law enforcement matter and an active homicide investigation being led by the RCMP in British Columbia.”
The PCO also pointed out the mandate of the inquiry provides Hogue with “the ability to examine and assess interference by China, Russia and other foreign states or non-state actors, in order to confirm the integrity of the 43rd and 44th general elections.”
CBC News also asked the PCO about May’s letter and will update this story if it receives a response.
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