Thanks, Mr. Chair.
While I appreciate that members of this committee think that the motion is out of order because they don't like it, that's not exactly how it works.
What we're seeing now, here at this committee, is that there's only one party in this country that is calling for the release of these names—the names that the Prime Minister has alluded to, the names that we know are being kept secret. Everyone else is trying to work to hide the names, particularly in the changing stories of Ms. May from before and after she was briefed. Now we see that the NDP is trying to distract from what was brought to this committee as a serious issue today—the serious issue of foreign interference by India—and they're now playing politics with it.
Listen to this: “I agree completely with Poilievre's decision not to take the bait. Trudeau has been trying for a year and a half to restrain what Pierre Poilievre can do by trying to say, 'Come and get this private briefing—and oh, by the way, then you'll be held to an official secret and you won't be able to talk about this anymore.' ”
Do you know who said that, Mr. Chair? That was Thomas Mulcair, who was the leader of the NDP when the NDP used to be an opposition party that wasn't helping the Liberals cover this up.
The question is this: What is the government trying to hide?
Everybody watching might not know that the CSIS Act allows the government to offer information to any Canadian about specific risks of foreign interference without forcing them into sworn secrecy or controlling what they say. However, this motion is particularly about releasing the names that Canadians deserve to know of any parliamentarian, in any party, who has been wittingly associated with foreign interference or with a foreign government working against the interests of Canadians. Receiving a secret briefing would, even according to the Prime Minister's chief of staff, prevent the recipient from using that information in any manner.
I don't think that's very smart for the only opposition party that can force the Prime Minister to come clean with Canadians on what he is trying to hide.
This particular motion that was dropped at committee is a mockery, the same kind of mockery that the Trudeau government has repeatedly made with foreign interference. What we witnessed at the public inquiry this week was nothing more than well-rehearsed partisan smears by a failing Prime Minister who is facing rejection from Canadians from coast to coast and is increasingly facing it from members of his own Liberal Party, who are conducting letter-writing campaigns to oust him from his leadership.
It is beyond rich for the Prime Minister to grandstand, given the record that his government has on not taking foreign interference seriously. With all of the benefit of information from the government agencies that he has and with all of the information that he was warned with, including in the Liberal Party, he refused to act.
This Prime Minister and his government repeatedly claim that they weren't aware of foreign interference happening right under their noses, despite a massive paper trail of warnings from officials.
It is Justin Trudeau's government that mysteriously sat, as we learned from the inquiry last week, on a CSIS surveillance warning, a warrant application for a Liberal power broker, for 54 days. Still there are no answers about that. The minister says that he doesn't know. Other ministers say that he doesn't know. There are staffers who gave absolutely no answers at that commission.
It is Justin Trudeau's party that willingly allowed Chinese high school students to vote in the now infamous Han Dong nomination race, and that was fine.
It was Justin Trudeau who ignored calls from the Leader of the Opposition to release those names to Parliament. He has repeatedly done that, and now the entire country is asking for those names.
You cannot go to the committee under the guise of providing information, drop that kind of partisan smear job on members of Parliament and then not come clean with the names.
The only people who are looking to have those names told to the Canadian public are in the Conservative Party. We are fighting, now, every party that is working with Justin Trudeau and his government to cover up these names. Canadians deserve to know which members of Parliament in which party, no matter what, are colluding with foreign governments, wittingly or unwittingly.
Others are willing to limit their ability to hold government to account on important issues of national security; Conservatives will not do that. Mr. Poilievre will not be left under a gag order, unable to speak about any of the information he receives.
All of that is to say that these names have to come out. There's only one person who can do that, and that's the Prime Minister of Canada. The government, through CSIS, is authorized by a particular section in the CSIS Act. It's section 12.1. He could act at any time to utilize threat reduction measures and notify the leader of a political party of issues concerning national security. He did not do that. Instead he chose to make it public in an inquiry and cast aspersions, with absolutely no evidence and no follow-through to let Canadians know who those people and members of Parliament are. This tool has been available to his government since he started, since 2015. He could use that tool to inform Pierre Poilievre, but he's not doing that.
All of that is to say that the amendment on the table is to release the names. Again, there is one party asking for this Prime Minister to release every single one of those names. The other parties, which are purportedly in opposition, are helping the Prime Minister to hide those names and the identities of all of those members of Parliament. The question really is, for the entire committee, “What on earth are you hiding? What is the Prime Minister hiding?” I think that's the question we have to get to the bottom of in this committee.
I hope that members will vote for this amendment to make those names public for the betterment of our national security and for every Canadian to know who represents them and, ahead of the next election, who they are actually voting for, which country they are working for and whether they have Canadians' best interests at heart.
Only the Prime Minister can do that. Everything else is pure politics. That's what we've seen this week and, unfortunately, that's what we're seeing right now at this committee.