Trudeau’s security adviser brushes off concerns
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser is playing down concerns over the government concealing cabinet documents from the commissioner looking into foreign interference, saying the government has chosen to provide the cabinet confidences it considers “most relevant” to the inquiry.
“We have already shared four MCs (memorandums to cabinet) with the commission and those cabinet documents were the most relevant, to the point, really addressing foreign interference,” Nathalie Drouin told the House of Commons committee of procedure and House affairs at its Thursday meeting.
“So, we shared with the commission, in a very transparent way, things that were relevant, to the point, with them,” she said.
Conservative MP Eric Duncan compared the situation to “a courtroom trial where the accused that’s on the stand gets to choose what evidence the judge gets to see.”
The foreign interference inquiry commissioner, Marie-Josée Hogue, who is expected to publish a second report later this year, noted in her interim report published in May that the commission was challenging certain redactions in more than 1,000 documents provided by the government, which cited “cabinet confidence, solicitor-client privilege or protection of personal information.”
On Thursday, commission spokesperson Michael Tansey said discussions about the redactions with the government are still ongoing. He said the commission has no further comment at this time.
Opposition MPs remained unconvinced by Drouin’s testimony and proceeded to press Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc over why the government is withholding information from a commission that is working under a tight deadline to have a final report completed by Dec. 31.
“Ultimately, what we all want coming out of this inquiry is to have faith in the process and in the inquiry and its outcome. If documents are withheld, you are going to undermine and undercut the work of the commissioner,” said NDP MP Jenny Kwan.