I was struck by two news items on Thursday. The first was the 80th anniversary of D-Day when 14,000 Canadian troops stormed Juno Beach breaking the long siege of Nazi Germany over Europe. Three hundred-fifty-nine soldiers died on that day defending Canada. They had all sworn allegiance to protecting Canada.
The other was the announcement that some unnamed Canadian Parliamentarians had been colluding with foreign governments while representing Canadian Ridings.
Before taking their seats and voting in the House of Commons, duly elected members must take an oath of allegiance or loyalty to the Sovereign and sign the Test Roll. They are making an oath that they will be acting in the best interests of Canada. Their oath was the same as those 14,000 Canadians who stormed Juno Beach.
In the inquiry into foreign governments playing a role in the outcome of Canadian elections, we have learned that both China and India interfered in elections. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, it was alleged that some parliamentarians have been supplying foreign governments with privileged and secret information. The RCMP investigation into foreign interference in examining 4000 documents has made this discovery.
It almost sounds like treason. It could even be bribery. We don’t know.
The parliamentarians remain unnamed. Their names should be made public. The three opposition parties should be calling for access to the unredacted report. All four parties seem too quiet to call for access to the documents and the information about the unnamed parliamentarians. Perhaps other parties have members who are benefiting from willingly supplying information to foreign governments.
Monday Prime Minister Trudeau agreed to turn over the information to the foreign interference inquiry headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue head of the public inquiry into foreign interference inquiry. Looking at individuals would expand the mandate of the inquiry.
The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) said that some parliamentarians are assisting foreign governments. The committee is made up of members of all parties.
It should be the responsibility of the party leaders to deal with members of their caucus who have been named in the secret document. Those same members should have a method of clearing their names. The party leaders should also make it clear that they want them to resign and not run again in another election.
The inquiry is only half finished. We won’t know the results of the inquiry for some time and even then, we might not know if some members of Canada’s parliament have failed in their oath of office.
