Foreign interference: Poilievre must get security clearance, says Singh | Public inquiry into foreign interference

New Democratic Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh finds it very worrying that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre does not obtain the high-level security clearance needed to view classified documents on foreign interference.

Mr. Singh says party leaders must be briefed on top secret intelligence and highlights allegations that Indian government agents played a role in the extortion, coercion and murder of Canadian citizens on Canadian soil.

There are these serious allegations that a foreign government literally hired gangs in Canada to go and shoot up homes and businesses, putting the lives of Canadians in danger.declared Mr. Singh Thursday at a press conference in Toronto.

Does this sound like the response of a leader who takes the situation seriously, who actually cares about security?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed Wednesday before the public commission of inquiry into foreign interference that he knows the names of past and current Conservative Party parliamentarians and candidates who are linked to foreign interference. Mr. Trudeau also specified that parliamentarians from other parties, including Liberals, were also singled out.

I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates of the Conservative Party of Canada who are involved or who are at high risk of being involved or for whom there is clear information regarding the foreign interferencedeclared Mr. Trudeau before the commission.

Mr. Poilievre responded by accusing the Prime Minister of lying under oath and saying he should release the names.

If Justin Trudeau has evidence to the contrary, he must communicate it to the public. Now that he has spoken in general terms to a commission of inquiry, he should make the facts public. But he won’t, because he’s making it upMr. Poilievre wrote Wednesday afternoon on X.

The Conservative leader maintains that on October 14, senior security officials in Ottawa informed him the issue of foreign interference from India. He believes that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act allows the government to warn Canadians of specific risks of foreign interference without requiring him to take an oath of confidentiality or controlling what he says.

In addition, Mr. Poilievre maintains that his chief of staff received from the government classified information but that a government official has never informed the leader of the official opposition, nor his chief of staff, thata current or former Conservative parliamentarian or candidate knowingly participated in foreign interference activities.

Attention to national security

The New Democratic leader stressed Thursday that he prefers to examine this information with his own eyes.

I don’t want to outsource this to anyone else. If this impacts my party and I’m the leader of that party, I want to make sure I know what’s going on.

Mr. Singh further stressed that he wants these names to be released in a way that does not compromise national security laws.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who also has the necessary security clearance to view top-secret documents, echoed the call for Mr Poilievre to avail himself of them too.

The only way for Canadians to know that the official opposition has not been compromised by foreign interference is for its leader to request and obtain security clearance, May wrote in a statement. I have been asking him to do it since June 2024. I insist even more that he does it now.

May is referring to the redacted version of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians’ report on foreign interference, released in the spring, which flagged alleged attempts by India to interfere in a Conservative Party leadership campaign.

Pierre Poilievre is the only person able to clarify the situation regarding the Conservative Party and the possible favors granted to foreign interests.

The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, has already indicated that he wants to obtain security clearance to examine the secret documents. His press secretary, Joanie Riopel, said Mr. Blanchet was in the final stages of obtaining this approval.