Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Elizabeth May is, once again, the adult in the room

Once again, Green Party leader Elizabeth May has shown herself to be the adult in the room. She took the responsibility of obtaining special security clearance and reading the unredacted version of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) report, and reporting back to Canadians that perhaps the sky is not falling.

Although circumscribed in what she was allowed to divulge publicly, Ms. May did the work for us and was able to confirm that the Canadian parliamentarians that the report fingers as having engaged in "semi-witting or witting" collusion with countries like China and India were not in fact current sitting parliamentarians. 

This is a big deal, and will maybe have put many people's worst fears to rest. "There is no list of MPs who have consciously, deliberately, sought to sell out Canada to preference another government." She now has, she says, "no worries about anyone in the House of Commons".

Thank you Ms. May. Why could someone else not have said that? Why could the government not have told us, without giving too much away, what the report is and is not saying?

Ms. May's succinct summary made it clear that, while the press' worst suspicions (stoked, it might be said, by the Committee itself) may not be appropriate, all is still not well as regards foreign interference in top-level Canadian politics. Some (unnamed for now) former MP is still alleged to have maintained a "relationship" with a foreign intelligence officer and provided them with confidential information, and legal prosecution may well be appropriate in this case. These are still allegations, however egregious, and so no names should be made public just yet. Also, a small number ("fewer than a handful") of current MPs/Senators may also be caught up in "meddling" that amounts to something less than treasonous activities.

Compare Ms. May's calm and sensible approach to the issue with Pierre Poilievre's, who still says he has no intention of reading the report because that would tie his hands and disallow him from talking about the issue (and scoring cheap political points in the process). It didn't seem to stop Elizabeth May, and we should be very grateful for that.

All in all, the media firestorm that has blown up around the foreign interference issue, and around the NSICOP report in particular, seems to have been overblown. Surprise? Not really.

UPDATE

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP, also read the same report, and somehow came away with entirely different conclusions.

Where Ms. May found relief in the details of the report, Mr. Singh found alarm. Where Ms. May found no evidence of sitting parliamentarians having engaged in witting collusion with foreign countries, Mr. Singh found quite sufficient evidence to talk about "treason": "What they're doing is unethical. It is in some cases against the law. They are indeed traitors to the country." Where Ms. May's reaction was calm and measured, Mr. Singh's was hectic and distressed, bordering on panicky. He has a bit of a flair for the dramatic, and sometimes he just can't help himself.

As though realizing that Mr. Singh had got a bit carried away, a party spokesperson did later issue a statement saying that Singh's comments should not be taken as confirming or denying that the parliamentarians cited in the report are currently serving.

How can two individuals have two such different reactions to the same information? Both are lawyers and should know how to read and parse a report. Of course, it's all about interpretation, but it may also be about image. Singh is often at pains to show that he is cross - very cross! - with Prime Minister Trudeau, because he does not want his voters to think he is soft on the Liberals, despite his sticking with them, through thick and thin, as part of the supply and confidence agreement between the two parties. Ms. May, with just two Green Party members in parliament and no formal agreement of support, has no such need.

Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, seems serene in his ignorance, and still has no intention of reading the report, he says.

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