Madam Speaker, for 54 days the then minister of public safety and current Minister of National Defence slow-walked a CSIS warrant. The subject of the warrant was none other than a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister and top organizer and fundraiser for the Prime Minister in the GTA. This same former Liberal cabinet minister has also been someone long suspected of being involved in Beijing's interference activities on Canadian soil.
At the public inquiry, national security officials testified that warrants of this kind are typically signed off by the minister in four to 10 days. Consistent with that, during the same time as this warrant, the minister signed off on two other warrants within four to eight days, but when it came to a warrant involving a former Liberal cabinet minister, top organizer and fundraiser for the Prime Minister, it took 54 long days.
We know, based on the evidence at the inquiry, that this was no accident. It is not as though the warrant application fell through the cracks on the minister's desk, which in and of itself would raise serious questions about the minister's competence. What happened was much more serious. There was a concerted effort within the government to slow-walk the warrant for a Liberal kingpin.
Here are the facts. The minister's chief of staff was given notice by CSIS that it intended to bring forward the warrant application in respect to the former Ontario Liberal minister. Two weeks after the warrant sat on the minister's desk, CSIS followed up with the minister's chief of staff. The warrant continued to languish on the minister's desk for 30 more days. Indeed, not until the director of CSIS personally intervened did the minister finally sign off on the warrant.
The question is why. What took so long? When I raised this question in the House during question period, I received a non-answer from the minister. The minister and his chief of staff testified at the public inquiry, where they provided no credible explanation for the delay. Canadians deserve answers about why it took 54 days, during which national security may have been compromised, so I put it to the government: What is the explanation?