NDP leader says Han Dong shouldn’t be allowed back into Liberal caucus
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After reading an unredacted report from one of Canada’s intelligence oversight bodies, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he now thinks that Independent MP Han Dong shouldn’t be allowed back into the Liberal caucus.
Last week, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a cross-party committee of MPs and senators with top security clearances, released a heavily blacked-out document alleging, based on intelligence, that some parliamentarians have been “semi-witting or witting” participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in Canadian politics.
Earlier this week, Singh — after receiving the proper security clearances — read an unredacted version of the report and said he was “alarmed” by what he saw.
Speaking to CBC News Network’s Power & Politics on Friday, Singh accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of not acting on the information in the report, and pointed to Dong’s case as an example.
“It is clear that [Dong] knew and, in his actions, implicitly accepted a certain level of foreign interference,” Singh told host David Cochrane.
“That sends a message that it is fair game for foreign powers to continue to try to influence, or manipulate or interfere with MPs.”
Dong left the Liberal caucus last year after Global News published a number of reports about the Toronto-area MP that cited security sources. One of those reports alleged that the Chinese government had interfered in Dong’s Liberal nomination contest in 2019.
After reading the full report on foreign interference that alleges parliamentarians have aided foreign actors meddling in Canada’s democracy, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh tells Power & Politics inaction by party leaders ‘sends a message that it’s fair game for foreign powers, for foreign governments to continue to try to influence or manipulate or interfere directly with MPs.’
The public inquiry investigating foreign interference, headed by Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, has seen intelligence summaries from CSIS suggesting that it feared international students may have been bused in to take part in the nomination vote and given fake documents to allow them to vote for Dong.
Trudeau and senior Liberal party officials told the inquiry that they were aware of CSIS’s concerns about Dong’s nomination contest but said the evidence wasn’t enough to remove him as a candidate.
Singh said Friday that Trudeau should have dropped Dong as a Liberal candidate.
“The intelligence briefing … concerning foreign interference for the candidate should have caused some serious concern about that candidate moving forward,” he said.
Dong has been seeking to rejoin the Liberals since last year. When asked if he thinks the Liberals should not allow Dong back in, Singh replied, “Absolutely.”
CBC News has reached out to Dong for reaction to Singh’s comments, but has yet to receive a response.
Earlier Friday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was asked by reporters about the NSICOP report more generally. He said he wouldn’t be going into details about the report.
“Other parliamentarians have chosen to go into some detail. Some more than others. The advice that I got from the RCMP and from the Department of Justice is to not comment on specific intelligence elements,” he said.
When asked for a response to Singh’s comments, LeBlanc’s press secretary Jean-Sébastien Comeau reiterated that the minister wouldn’t be commenting on specifics.
“As we have said previously, we won’t comment on other party leaders’ interpretation of NSICOP’s report. We believe that Justice Hogue is the appropriate authority to handle the next steps in this matter,” he said in an email.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May has read the unredacted version of an intelligence watchdog report that accuses some parliamentarians of conspiring with foreign governments. She joins Power & Politics to discuss.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May also read a copy of the unredacted report this week, but had a very different response — she said she was “vastly relieved.”
May said that she doesn’t believe any of her current House of Commons colleagues knowingly betrayed their country.
“You couldn’t find a single name of a single member of Parliament currently serving who had significant intelligence, or any intelligence or any suggestion in the unredacted report, that they had put the interest of a foreign government ahead of Canada’s,” she told Power & Politics on Tuesday.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is also seeking security clearance to review the unredacted report.
