本周三,绿党领袖伊丽莎白 梅查阅了Jonhnston 的秘密报告,她感觉读后疑问更多了。提供的两份文件共25页,20页援引附件,脚注等都是绝密,她无权查阅。她认为缺少很多关键细节,无法得出Johnston 的报告合理或者不合理。
文章中略微讨论了董议员的候选资格和两个麦克的关押问题,但是因为缺失信息,无法得出任何结论。
NDP领袖辛格也接受了查阅报告的邀请,正在尽快安排阅读时间。保守党和魁人党领袖拒绝了,认为这是执政党的圈套,使他们阅读后无权对外发表公开评论。
梅同意Johnston的意见,(google translation):
认为有必要查明那些向媒体泄露国家安全文件和信息的人并追究其责任。
“外国国家干涉我们的选举进程是对民主的威胁。国家机构对我们政治进程的干涉也是如此,”梅说。
《环球邮报》三月份发表了一篇匿名评论文章,作者是“国家安全官员”。 主编大卫·沃尔姆斯利表示,这位未透露姓名的官员提供的启示“构成了该报关于外国干涉的新闻报道的支柱”。
这位自称举报人的国家安全官员写道,他们选择讨论外国干涉加拿大记者的威胁,因为“高级公职人员无视干涉的证据开始增加”。
“我们不知道他们的动机。我们不知道他们是谁,他们似乎认为他们可以通过自己的告密者叙述来保护自己,”梅说。 “ I don't buy it。”
“每个加拿大人都应该注意确保我们的安全和情报机构可靠,并确保在那里工作的人认真宣誓。”
Top-secret briefing on foreign interference left out key documents: Green leader
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Updated Aug. 18, 2023 3:20 p.m. EDT
Published Aug. 18, 2023 11:47 a.m. EDT
OTTAWA - Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said a top-secret briefing on foreign interference this week did not allow her to access key intelligence documents.
Former special rapporteur David Johnston had released an initial report on alleged meddling in Canadian elections in May, along with a confidential annex of evidence that he said opposition party leaders who obtained relevant clearance could review.
May and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh have both received top-secret security clearance, and May was the first to attend a confidential briefing on Wednesday.
"There's so much more that I thought I was going to find out about," May told reporters Friday on Parliament Hill.
She said officials presented her only with two documents Johnston authored -- 25 pages in total. The main 20-page annex cited numerous intelligence reports she was not allowed to read, she said.
May said the Privy Council Office is still considering her request for access to all the cited records, saying that she needs them in order to assess the credibility of Johnson's findings.
The former governor general's report had concluded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government didn't knowingly or negligently fail to act on foreign attempts to interfere in the last two federal elections.
Johnston also concluded, based on the intelligence he reviewed, that Trudeau hadn't been briefed about specific allegations -- though he also found that serious reforms were needed to improve the way government handles sensitive intelligence.
"I expected to have a larger brain burden of reading and comprehending top-secret documents before leaving the room," May said.
The Green leader said she doesn't suspect a cover-up, but rather a mistake in how officials interpreted Johnston's call to allow those with the right security clearance "to review my conclusions and judge whether they are warranted based on the full information contained in the annex."
May said what she did examine revealed more of the evidence upon which Johnston concluded that there was key context missing in the media reporting around Toronto MP Han Dong.
Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus after Global News published a story citing unidentified security sources who alleged Dong told a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that releasing detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor would benefit the Conservatives.
Global had previously published allegations that Dong benefited from Chinese foreign interference in his bid to become the Liberal candidate for his riding in the 2019 election.
The MP has denied all wrongdoing and is suing the news agency over its reports.
May said the questions over the nomination process, in particular, were elaborated on in the documentation she reviewed. "They get into a lot more detail on that, and that's viewed as confidential and top-secret in the documents," May said.
Beijing has rejected all claims that it has meddled in Canada's democracy, though Canadian officials have said China is among the countries that are actively trying to interfere.
May added that she took up the offer to examine the documents in the hopes that she could bridge political partisanship and help inform the debate Canadians are having around foreign interference.
"I want Canadians to have confidence in our elections, our institutions."
When Trudeau offered to bring opposition party leaders into the fold, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet both declined, saying they saw it as a trap designed to prevent them from speaking about the allegations in public.
Singh's office said earlier this week that it was working to find a time for him to review documents in Ottawa.
Johnston resigned not long after issuing his first report, citing an atmosphere of hyper-politicization around his work. Before and after that resignation, opposition parties continued to call for a formal public inquiry into the allegations.
May said the Greens have been part of ongoing talks around an inquiry, adding that her party wants it to look at other states in addition to China and be led by one or more commissioners who have the support of all opposition parties. She said the Greens have submitted names of people who might fit the bill.
The B.C. MP was critical of whoever has been leaking intelligence to media, as well as what she calls inappropriate levels of partisanship, saying both are undermining Canada's security.
She said anyone leaking the information needs to be publicly named and prosecuted, or Canada will undermine the trust of its allies.
"I worry that trying to find out who did this will be cast as a political witch hunt with partisan motives. Every Canadian should care to ensure that our security and intelligence establishment be reliable, that the people who work there take their oath seriously," she said.
"Foreign state interference in our electoral process is a threat to democracy. So is interference in our political process from agencies of the state."
She noted the experience of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was tortured in Syria after officials leaked false information that damaged his reputation. She also cited the RCMP public complaints commission's finding that the force likely influenced the 2006 federal election by naming then-Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale as being the subject of a criminal investigation.
That history has her concerned about leaks that could originate from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, she said.
"I think we've lost track of the fact that people within CSIS did this deliberately. We don't know their motives; we don't know who they are. And they seem to think that they can be protected by their own narrative that they're whistleblowers. I don't buy it."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2023.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says a top-secret briefing on foreign interference did not allow her to access key intelligence documents.
www.ctvnews.ca
Elizabeth May frustrated by lack of detail in top secret documents on foreign interference
May says she is unable to decide whether David Johnston's findings were reasonable
Brennan MacDonald · CBC News · Posted: Aug 18, 2023 11:14 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 18
Green Party Co-Leader Elizabeth May, seen at a press conference on Parliament Hill Friday, said there was not enough detail in the top secret documents she reviewed to conclude whether or not special rapporteur David Johnston's conclusions on foreign interference were reasonable or not. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press )
Green Party Co-Leader Elizabeth May is expressing frustration with the level of information contained in the two top-secret documents on foreign interference she was permitted to review this week.
May received top-secret security clearance and reviewed the documents compiled by former special rapporteur David Johnston on Wednesday.
"I can't conclude that David Johnston's conclusions were reasonable, nor can I conclude they are unreasonable," May told a press conference Friday morning.
She said she was not allowed to review the documents Johnston cited to support the conclusions in his 20-page summary report.
"The citations and footnotes were to documents described by a title of the memo, the author of a memo, the date and often the designation of how top-secret that document is, and a page number," said May.
Media reports published earlier this year — many based on leaked intelligence and anonymous national security sources — raised questions about the government's handling of China's alleged interference activities in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Under pressure to strike a public inquiry, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Johnston as special rapporteur to investigate the extent and impact of foreign interference on Canada's electoral processes.
Before resigning from that role, Johnston issued his first report and recommended against calling a public inquiry.
In exclusive interview with CBC's Power & Politics, special rapporteur on foreign interference David Johnston says claims that he is biased are based on 'false' allegations. (Toni Choueiri/CBC)
Johnston wrote that he had included a "confidential annex to my report that addresses the major media allegations in detail and includes citations to the intelligence documents and other products that led me to my conclusions."
"The purpose of this confidential annex is to permit individuals holding appropriate Top Secret security clearance to review my conclusions and judge whether they are warranted based on the full information contained in the annex," Johnston wrote.
"A document that is laboriously referenced but unavailable does not help me do what David Johnston said we'd be able to do, which was to see how he formed his conclusions and add whether we agree or disagree that his conclusions were reasonable," said May.
May told reporters she has asked the Privy Council Office whether she can review the documents cited by Johnston and is waiting for a response.
CBC News has reached out to the Privy Council Office for comment.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also has received top secret security clearance. He said Thursday he's working on scheduling a time to review the documents "as soon as possible."
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet have both declined to review the documents, arguing the top secret security clearance would prevent them from speaking about the allegations publicly.
May said she agrees with Johnston on the need to identify and hold accountable those who leaked national security documents and information to the media.
"Foreign state interference in our electoral process is a threat to democracy. So is interference in our political process from agencies of the state," said May.
The Globe and Mail published an anonymous opinion piece in March attributed to a "national security official." Editor-in-Chief David Walmsley said the unnamed official provided the revelations that "formed the backbone" of the paper's news stories on foreign interference.
A self-described whistleblower, the national security official wrote that they chose to discuss the threat of foreign interference with Canadian journalists because "evidence of senior public officials ignoring interference was beginning to mount."
"We don't know their motives. We don't know who they are and they seem to think that they can be protected by their own narrative that they're whistleblowers," said May. "I don't buy it.
"Every Canadian should care to ensure that our security and intelligence establishment be reliable, that the people who work there take their oath seriously."