Trudeau asked the national security committee to review the issue despite facing calls for weeks to launch a public inquiry into the matter.
Trudeau has encouraged NSICOP to take up an investigation of foreign interference, but that committee has previously raised the alarm that foreign governments were attempting to interfere not just in Canada’s elections, but in civil society more broadly.
The Liberals have had a mixed record actually responding to NSICOP, however. The committee noted in its 2021 annual report that, for the first time since the Liberals created the committee in 2017, the government had actually responded to its concerns. “It equally encourages the government to respond to the recommendations of the Committee’s seven previous reviews of critical issues in the security and intelligence community, including… the absence of a whole of government strategy to address foreign interference in Canada,” the committee wrote.Article content
Trudeau acknowledged Monday his government had been slow to respond to previous recommendations. He announced the government would respond quickly now to all outstanding recommendations.