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Minutes of Proceedings

44th Parliament, 1st Session
Meeting 91
Thursday, October 26, 2023, 11:07 a.m. to 1:01 p.m.
Televised
Presiding
Hon. Bardish Chagger, Chair (Liberal)

Library of Parliament
• Andre Barnes, Analyst
• Sarah Dodsworth, Analyst
As an individual
• Hon. Erin O'Toole, President, ADIT North America
Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, May 10, 2023, the committee resumed consideration of the question of privilege related to the intimidation campaign against the member for Wellington—Halton Hills and other members.

The witness made a statement and answered questions.

Motion

Michael Cooper moved, — That, in relation to its order of reference of Wednesday, May 10, 2023, concerning the intimidation campaign orchestrated by Wei Zhao against the Member for Wellington—Halton Hills and other Members, and in relation to its study on foreign election interference, the Committee:

(a) acknowledge the failure of officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Liberal Party of Canada to provide relevant information to this Committee that they had indicated they would undertake to provide;

(b) order the production, within three weeks, of all documents which contains the names of:

(i) the Liberal Party campaign manager for the electoral district of Don Valley North in the 2019 federal general election,

(ii) the campaign manager for the 2019 nomination campaign of Han Dong for the Liberal Party nomination in the electoral district of Don Valley North, and

(iii) the field organizers and senior Liberal Party officials responsible for the Greater Toronto Area and/or the City of Toronto during and leading up to the 2019 federal general election;

(c) direct the analysts and clerk to prepare, for the members of the Committee, within three weeks, a report on all undertakings given by witnesses who have appeared during these studies and the status of those undertakings, other than the undertakings referred to in paragraph (b);

(d) direct the clerk to contact any witness who has not completely satisfied any undertaking referred to in the report prepared under paragraph (c) to request that it be satisfied within two weeks of the clerk’s request; and (e) order the production, within three weeks, of

(i) the July 2021 CSIS report entitled “People’s Republic of China Foreign Interference in Canada: A Critical National Security Threat” and the May 2021 CSIS issues management note sent to the then-Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness respecting the Beijing regime’s intention to target Members of this House, together with all records concerning the transmission to, distribution within, analysis of and handling by, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, the Department of National Defence and the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, of this report, and

(ii) all other memoranda, briefing notes, e-mails, records of conversations, and any other relevant documents, including any drafts, which are in the possession of any government department or agency, including the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, the Critical Election Incident Protocol Panel, any minister’s office, and the Prime Minister’s Office, containing information concerning

(A) planning or efforts by, or on behalf of, foreign governments or other foreign state actors to intimidate a Member of the House of Commons, or

(B) the matters raised by the Honourable Erin O’Toole in the House of Commons on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, and before the Committee on Thursday, October 26, 2023, provided that

(iii) these documents be deposited without redaction, in both official languages, with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel,

(iv) a copy of the documents shall also be deposited, in both official languages, with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, with any proposed redaction of information which, in the government’s opinion, could reasonably be expected to compromise the identities of employees or sources or intelligence-collecting methods of Canadian or allied intelligence agencies,

(v) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall promptly notify the Committee whether the Office is satisfied that the documents were produced as ordered, and, if not, the Chair shall be instructed to present forthwith, on behalf of the Committee, a report to the House outlining the material facts of the situation,

(vi) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall assess the redactions proposed by the government, pursuant to paragraph (iv), to determine whether the Office agrees that the proposed redactions conform with the criteria set out in paragraph (iv) and

(A) if it agrees, it shall provide the documents, as redacted by the government pursuant to paragraph (iv), to the Clerk of the Committee, or

(B) if it disagrees with some or all of the proposed redactions, it shall provide a copy of the documents, redacted in the manner the Office determines would conform with the criteria set out in paragraph (iv), together with a report indicating the number, extent and nature of the government’s proposed redactions which were disagreed with, to the Clerk of the Committee, and

(vii) the clerk of the committee shall cause the redacted documents, provided by the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel pursuant to paragraph (vi), to be distributed to the members of the committee.

Debate arose thereon.

Motion

Sherry Romanado moved, — That the debate be now adjourned.

The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Parm Bains, Rachel Blaney, Terry Duguid, Iqwinder Gaheer, Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Annie Koutrakis, Sherry Romanado — 7;

NAYS: Luc Berthold, Blaine Calkins, Michael Cooper, Eric Duncan — 4.

Questioning of the witness resumed.

At 1:01 p.m., the committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.



Andrew Lauzon
Acting clerk of the committee