The Front Bench breaks down the foreign agent frenzy | Power Play with Vassy Kapelos

where is foreign interference is it in our NOS yes is it in our boardrooms yes is it in our community associations yes should we wake up yes Elizabeth May did nothing what do you mean she did nothing can you clarify what that means sorry what do you mean by that the names the names aren’t in the report they’re in the thousands of documents no they’re not they’re in the thousands of documents every leader should read the details of the document I don’t see why one Pier POV refuses to see the documents and Justin chudo has done nothing with the information we’re bringing back the front bench to talk about what you just heard carlen verine Gary Mark Carl B and Ma Walsh part of what we just heard ma was you going up to the hill and asking everybody what they think about this what what do you walk away what’s your impression walking away with the seriousness with which this is being taken well I think David McGinty went to Great Lengths to try and impress upon people today how serious it is we’re kind of sandwiched between lizm press conference and the one from jug meet saying that we’re expecting tomorrow in which case he is also expected to give his take his analysis his interpretation of the classified version of the report I find that odd because that means the government has sort of seeded the framing and the explanation of this to the opposition leaders and and not doing so itself on the flip side I think that all the other party leaders getting this briefing makes it more challenging for Pierre POV not to um and it’s a bit confusing to know or to even have a sense of where this goes because the government has not presented any sort of action plan has sort of said we’ll leave this all to the commissioner which is only presenting a report in December and so the expectation seems to be that we all just sit down and wait Gary what do you think about that do you think that the prospect of that happening is the prospects for that happening I should say are high well I think they they are trying to slow roll uh taking any action on this hoping that it will disappear it wouldn’t surprise me to see them uh come up with a press release on the 24th of December uh when everybody’s tucking into dinner look I I think that the the challenge is very difficult for the liberal party in this particular case is for the government what to do uh the release of the report uh and further action being taken on it may already uh have had you know sort of further uh distrust in government and and uh on the other hand if they don’t do anything with it uh that’s also a significant problem for them because uh naming and shaming as Minister Leblon refers to it may not be the thing you want to do but you do want to have accountability uh Canadians should know uh what has been done by their parliamentarians they should have trust this should be a nonpartisan issue uh every party should be interested in knowing uh what kind of uh activities their members are up to and and deal with them accordingly and uh so I it’s a very challenging circumstance for the government uh to be in I think they’re trying to just as we discussed you know a year ago uh they thought that this would just go away and it hasn’t gone away it continues to pressure them it’s just weird also carlen that like our first sort of window into what actually is happening comes from Lis May then tomorrow it will be added to by jug meet Singh like it’s all very like you know they’re they’re openly talking about how they’re going in a secret elevator and reading things in a secret room like this is not really how I would have expected um a national security issue to play out ma alluded to this that the Liberals are sort of seeding control of the dialogue around this to a variety of players in Parliament I actually think that’s the right move and and let’s not forget the reason that this nsic cop report came out in the first place is because the government asked this committee this multi-partisan Committee of parliamentarians to look at this issue and it’s a committee that they created that did not exist before Justin Trudeau and the Liberals came to power so they knew exactly what they were doing um in terms of that that eye to creating a bit more transparency um within Parliament around issues of democratic integrity and and interference um I think that what the effect is going to be is that it is going to depoliticize the conversation and that’s very important with respect to action um I think the most important action that can be taken right now is getting Bill C70 passed the fact that it’s happening as we’re reading um these allegations and the report is is interesting but um you heard multiple experts including Richard faten the the former CIS director talk about that that a lot of the measures that are in C70 are actually going to address some of these things that the committee raised I think it’s also to um the point made earlier just becoming increasingly untenable for one party leader only to abdicate his responsibility and choose to sort of put politics ahead of everything and not receive the briefing when everybody else has sort of done that two things pick up on there um get your thoughts Carl on that which I think everyone can see like the pressure I you know it’s hard to explain now if you thought that you were handcuffed by getting this briefing when everyone else is able to hold press conferences why that is the case but to the to the point that Ken’s making about the you know this is all the government’s doing that yes they asked for it they also very clearly once the report came out a year later we like we don’t agree with any of the conclusions reached which we all condemning the government’s lack of action on the file that’s right and so I mean I think uh you know as part of the inside baseball that’s happening here a lot of people are like why is PF not doing the right thing and you know but I think if you get out of the political circles uh what Canadians are seeing is the government has something to hide the government has something to hide they’ve had something to hide for quite some time and it’s not because Elizabeth May read the report and says everybody’s clean that suddenly we can move on it’s not going to happen that way so the government has a bigger problem P PV but but it it kind of delose the the conservatives attack though the fact that he won’t do what Elizabeth May did what Jack will do um I’m not sure what the the block leader will do but frankly I think I he got the clearance now so he he finally got it okay so so finally he’s going to be isolated Pier p on this file but it’s not the main narrative though the main narrative Remains the government as something to hide interestingly though it’s not Pier PV leading the questions on this I think I can think of only one question in the House of Commons he’s asked it’s other delegates in the party who are bringing it up frequently yeah and not even that frequently to be honest and clearly the party has tried to get them to put a lid on it no MP would answer our questions today about what they thought of the report what they thought of their leader not getting the briefing you know I was standing outside of West block and they sent a com staffer to come monitor my questions so they’re clearly very sensitive to this and very alive to the issue um I I think more broadly though the bill will pass tomorrow the issue for the government is that cus is the one that is discounting what it’s saying right now the government’s message is wait for the prosecutions and the police investigation cesa says the parties can all do not wait for those because they will not happen it is very challenging to do and cus is saying the parties should get briefed and act and cus is saying they can act and so when you’re being sort of rebutted by the head of cits it’s a bit harder to hold your line I think yeah I think that’s true okay I got to leave it there thanks so much to the front bench appreciate it carlen Varan Gary Meer Carl bong and Maro Walsh your takeaway is next

The Front Bench breaks down the political stakes of interference allegations that continue to hang over Parliament Hill.

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