Former Conservative management candidate Patrick Brown says he’ll seem earlier than a Home committee trying into international interference.
The Home of Commons standing committee on public security and nationwide safety is trying into allegations that brokers of the Authorities of India have engaged in electoral interference and legal actions in Canada. Final week, MPs on that committee summoned Brown, presently mayor of Brampton, Ont., after he declined earlier invites.
In a social media submit on Monday, Brown mentioned he has now agreed to look earlier than the committee — though he nonetheless questions whether or not his testimony can be helpful to the committee.
“I’ve no new proof to contribute to the committee’s proceedings and am involved that my look has been looked for political causes,” he mentioned within the assertion.
He argued that the general public inquiry into international interference being led by Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue would have been a extra applicable venue. He mentioned he was by no means contacted by Hogue to testify.
Brokers of the Indian authorities allegedly tried to derail Brown’s marketing campaign for the management of the Conservative Occasion in 2022, in line with sources who spoke to Radio-Canada.
The Nationwide Safety and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) cited “India’s alleged interference in a Conservative Occasion of Canada management race” in its explosive report on international interference. A redacted model of that report was made public in June 2024.
“CSIS didn’t advise the Conservative Occasion of Canada of any intelligence suggesting there was international interference within the management contest,” Sarah Fischer, director of communications for the Conservative Occasion, mentioned on the time. “That is the primary time we now have heard about it.”
Radio-Canada has no proof indicating that Pierre Poilievre, now the Conservative chief, was conscious of the alleged actions of India’s brokers. He handily received the 2022 management race on the primary poll with 68 per cent of the obtainable factors. Poilievre’s workplace advised Radio-Canada it had no information of any makes an attempt by Indian authorities representatives to undermine Brown’s marketing campaign.
Brown mentioned in his assertion that he has no cause to imagine that international interference affected the outcomes of the 2022 management race.
Brown was disqualified by Conservative Occasion authorities in July 2022 following allegations of “severe wrongdoing” linked to election financing. On the time, Brown accused the “social gathering institution” of “wanting to ensure Poilievre didn’t lose.”
Sources advised Radio-Canada that Brown’s nationwide marketing campaign co-chair, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, allegedly was pressured to withdraw her assist for Brown. The Alberta MP denied these allegations in a written assertion to Radio-Canada.
WATCH | Rempel Garner walks away from journalist making an attempt to ask query:
Rempel Garner walks away from journalist making an attempt to ask query
Forward of a parliamentary committee assembly on Monday in Ottawa, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner walks away from CBC journalist Chris Rands as he makes an attempt to ask a query about allegations that she was pressured to withdraw her assist for Patrick Brown throughout his 2022 Conservative Occasion of Canada management race. Rempel Garner categorically denies the allegation. Sources who spoke to Radio-Canada say brokers of the Indian authorities allegedly tried to derail Brown’s marketing campaign for the social gathering management in 2022.
A Ontario Chronicle journalist approached Rempel Garner earlier than the beginning of a separate committee assembly on Monday to ask concerning the allegations. Earlier than the journalist may point out something concerning the allegations, Rempel Garner quickly bought up from her seat and left the room. She later appeared on the committee just about.
Rempel Garner give up her place as co-chair of Brown’s marketing campaign in June 2022 earlier than the management race had concluded.
In her assertion to Radio-Canada, the MP mentioned she left Brown’s marketing campaign on her “personal volition.”
“In no occasion was I coerced in any method, by anybody, at any time. I’m an skilled parliamentarian, seasoned communicator, and former cupboard minister who has confirmed greater than able to growing senior grade positions totally based mostly by myself learn of a scenario … to counsel that I am not is ridiculous,” Rempel Garner mentioned in her assertion.
Poilievre is the one chief who has refused to acquire a safety clearance with a purpose to view the unredacted model of the NSICOP report. He has argued that it might stop him from criticizing the Liberal authorities’s method to addressing international interference.
Conservative Occasion spokesperson Sebastian Skamski repeated that argument in an electronic mail on Monday, saying that the federal government can use “‘risk discount measures below part 12.1 of the CSIS Act to make additional info obtainable” with out limiting Poilievre’s capacity to talk.
“In contrast to others who’re keen to restrict their capacity to carry the federal government to account on essential problems with nationwide safety, Mr. Poilievre is not going to be gagged and left unable to talk or act on the knowledge he might obtain,” Skamski mentioned.
When requested concerning the allegations in Radio-Canada’s report, Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc mentioned Poilievre ought to get his safety clearance.
“I’ve loads of confidence within the work that CSIS does when it comes to detecting and disrupting the international interference. I see these briefings very recurrently and I want the chief of the opposition was sufficient to have the ability to see them himself,” LeBlanc advised reporters.
