The Canadian capital rocked by accusations of treason

Lawmakers have urged Trudeau’s Liberal government to name names following revelations made last week in a heavily redacted National Security Commission report.

It also alleged that China and India had interfered in campaigns for the Canadian party leadership, including that of Trudeau’s main rival, Tory leader Pierre Poilievre.

MPs were expected to approve an opposition motion on Tuesday calling for an independent inquiry already looking into foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections, to also scrutinize possible betrayals.

The investigation led by Judge Marie-Josee Hogue was launched last September.

“I think it is extremely important that we continue to take foreign interference with all the seriousness that is necessary,” Trudeau said.

The opposition motion is not binding on the government, but he said his Liberals would vote with opposition parties to ask Hogue to further investigate the claims so that “Canadians can have confidence in the integrity of their democracy.”

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Opposition parties previously called for transparency in the House of Commons.

“Conservatives are demanding the government expand the scope of the public inquiry into foreign interference to receive all documents and information and reveal the names of which MPs have sold out their country,” said Tory MP Andrew Scheer.

Bloc Quebec MP Pierre Paul-Hus, who introduced the motion, said: “We need to know who these members are who are collaborating with hostile foreign countries.”

He was echoed by New Democratic Party leader and Trudeau ally Jagmeet Singh, who called the findings “deeply disturbing” and demanded accountability. “Canadians should know,” he said.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) in a report last week cited “disturbing information that some parliamentarians are ‘semi-conscious or conscious’ participants in foreign states’ attempts to interfere in our politics.”

This included secretly financing political campaigns, sharing confidential or privileged information about the work or opinions of fellow lawmakers with foreign intelligence officials, and influencing Canadian lawmakers to favor a foreign state.

The report did not identify the Canadians involved in the plans but chided Ottawa for its “slow response to a known threat.”

Public Safety Secretary Dominic LeBlanc declined to reveal the identities of lawmakers named in the report, saying it was itself illegal.

He also said the allegations in the NSICOP report may contain uncorroborated or unverified intelligence information.