Roundup: A political problem means classified briefings

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The naming-names debate continued apace yesterday, starting at the public safety committee, where Dominic LeBlanc pushed back against Conservative theatrics demanding the release of the names (to atrocious behaviour from all sides), while at that that same meeting, the director of CSIS and the RCMP deputy commissioner also warned that releasing those names will cause both reputational damage to individuals who can’t defend themselves on the basis of allegations that aren’t backed up, and it can also damage ongoing investigations. There is no due process that comes with naming names for the sake of it.

Ultimately, however, this remains a political problem for the parties, because they need to know who among their ranks was compromised, and that requires all leaders to have the appropriate security classifications (and apparently for privy council members who are no longer ministers, there is a Treasury Board-esque process now that requires renewal, which is an extremely odd and concerning process because MPs are not government employees and they use intelligence in a different manner, so they shouldn’t need to use the same process). And as Philippe Lagassé points out, this isn’t necessarily a problem for law enforcement so much as it is for the parties. If the leaders get the classified briefings, they know which of their MPs may be compromised (and it’s is a “may,” not an “is” because we’re dealing with unverified intelligence that may not be true), and give them the space to either sideline them, prevent them from contesting the next election under the party banner, or to give those MPs the ability to try and exonerate themselves outside of the public eye where their reputations could be irreparably damaged. But again, this relies on the leaders doing the right thing and getting briefed, not hiding behind the bullshit excuse that they would be “muzzled” if they did.

There are a couple of other problems here. One is that in talking with people familiar with NSICOP, that they have had a tendency to exaggerate things in their reports because they also have an agenda of trying to make themselves look better and to take more of the spotlight, so we should take some of these allegations with a grain of salt. As well, some of those allegations are back to the problem that we heard about in other places where some of the intelligence was rejected by the National Security Advisor because they believed it was normal course of diplomatic engagement and not interference, which is something the Hogue Commission is struggling with. We don’t have a complete picture for a lot of reasons, and everyone is jumping to conclusions and needs to dial it down.

Programming Note: I’m away for the weekend, so there won’t be a Saturday post.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Ukraine shot down 17 of 18 Russian drones overnight, with the damage of the final drone in the Khmelnytsky region.

Good reads:

  • The prime minister was at Juno Beach in Normandy for D-Day commemorations, alongside the Prince of Wales and the prime minister of France.
  • Sean Fraser launched a $1.5 billion co-op housing development programme that was first promised in Budget 2022.
  • Mark Holland tabled a bill that imposes new rules on technology vendors in order to “streamline and secure” health data across the country.
  • First Nations University announced plans to launch an institute that will track Indigenous economic prosperity in Canada.
  • CEOs from the major oil and gas companies told the environment committee they support carbon pricing but not an emissions cap.
  • Conservative MP Brad Redekopp says he “misspoke” when he said the Indigenous perpetrators of the 2022 mass stabbing was likely to reoffend because of his race.
  • A case involving someone making death threats against NDP MP Charlie Angus was stayed because the police lost the evidence.
  • Independent MP Kevin Vuong claims he and his wife have been followed since he tabled an petition to classify certain pro-Palestinian phrases as hate speech.
  • Doug Ford shuffled and expanded his Cabinet, and now nearly every one of his MPPs is either a minister or parliamentary secretary.
  • Philippe Lagassé makes some necessary points about the lack of due process in the desire to name the MPs from the NSICOP report, and their having no recourse.

Odds and ends:

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