Foreign Affairs Minister insists there are no ‘traitors’ in Liberal caucus

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly insists there are no "traitors" in the Liberal caucus, after a report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) alleged there are MPs and senators who are “semi-witting or witting participants” in foreign interference efforts.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly insists there are no “traitors” in the Liberal caucus, after a report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) alleged there are MPs and senators who are “semi-witting or witting participants” in foreign interference efforts.

“Listen, if that was the case, they would be out of the Liberal caucus, and they should be out of every single party,” Joly told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday.

NSICOP first released a redacted version of its report nearly two weeks ago, and suspicion on who those parliamentarians may be has dominated debate on Parliament Hill ever since.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — who received the security clearance to get access to the full classified report this week — concluded “there are a number of MPs who have knowingly provided help to foreign governments.” Singh did not, however, provide details bout the number of MPs implicated but said no NDP MPs are among them.

“What they’re doing is unethical,” he told reporters on Thursday. “It is in some cases against the law, and they are indeed traitors to the country.”

When asked multiple times by Kapelos about Singh’s assertion there are “traitors” in Parliament, Joly didn’t directly answer but insisted it’s important not to make the issue partisan.

“When I hear these loaded words, I feel that it's really hurting our democracy,” she said. “Because fundamentally, foreign interference is a real thing. It has been happening for years now. It’s more of an issue because of disinformation, misinformation online, but all democracies in the world are facing this.”