Privy Council Office - Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, issued the following statement:
"Today in Parliament, our government tabled the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians' (NSICOP) Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada's Democratic Processes and Institutions.
The Government of Canada welcomes NSICOP's report and thanks its members for their work in putting the report together. We will consider the Committee's recommendations as part of our work to continuously refine and adapt our measures to counter foreign interference.
There are, however, elements of the report with which the government respectfully disagrees. The government's concerns center around the interpretation of intelligence reports, which lacked the necessary caveats inherent to intelligence, as well as the lack of acknowledgment of the full breadth of outreach that has been done with respect to informing parliamentarians about the threat posed by foreign interference.
The Committee rightly stresses that all parliamentarians must be part of the solution - and the government wholly agrees with that view.
The government will also consider the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency's (NSIRA) review on foreign interference in the 43rd and 44th federal general elections, and the Initial Report from the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference, and looks forward to receiving the recommendations from the final report from the Public Inquiry later this year.
Canada has recently put in place several measures to protect people in Canada and ensure that Canada's democratic system remains free and fair. Notably, the government recently introduced Bill C-70, An Act respecting countering foreign interference, and Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act, both of which will further our efforts to combat foreign interference and protect Canada's democratic processes and institutions.
