Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s refusal to get his security clearance is back in the spotlight on the campaign trail following reports the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) learned that India helped organize support for his leadership bid.
The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that CSIS learned that Indian proxies were involved in raising money and organizing within the South Asian community for Poilievre during the leadership race, which he went on to win in 2022.
Sources confirmed the story to Radio-Canada. They were not authorized to speak publicly about the classified information.
Those sources said CSIS’s assessment does not indicate whether these efforts were extensive or highly organized. They said the intelligence service has no evidence that Poilievre and his team were aware of the alleged efforts.
Poilievre won handily on the first ballot with 68 per cent of the points.
Radio-Canada reported late last year that Indian consular agents allegedly attempted to derail Patrick Brown’s campaign in that 2022 leadership race.
According to the Globe’s reporting, CSIS didn’t share the information with Poilievre because he didn’t have the necessary security clearance.
The Conservative leader has long rejected calls to go through that process, arguing that he wouldn’t be able to freely speak or criticize the government based on the top secret information.
Poilievre has a media availability in Vaughan, Ont., where he’s expected to be asked questions about the reporting.
At his own campaign stop in Halifax, Liberal Leader Mark Carney took the opportunity to slam Poilievre for rejecting calls and opportunities to obtain his security clearance.
“I find it beyond baffling, I find it down right irresponsible, that the leader of the opposition, day after day, month after month, year after year, refuses to obtain his security clearance,” he said.
“As a normal course, in peacetime, when times are tranquil, that’s unacceptable then. But at this point in our history, when we face the greatest threats that we faced in generations in most of our lifetimes, he has to answer for that.”
CSIS had been looking to share info with Poilievre
Poilievre has been under pressure for months to get his clearance to review information regarding foreign interference and his party.
Then prime minister Justin Trudeau told the public inquiry studying foreign interference last fall that he had “the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged, or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference.”
Poilievre pushed back and said the prime minister should name the individuals he alluded to during his testimony.
Trudeau then said he had asked intelligence services to find a way to brief Poilievre about foreign interference allegations involving his party — and possibly to share “some names” with the Conservative leader.
CSIS said in December that it was looking to share “some information to the leader of the Official Opposition through a threat reduction measure.”
But a spokesperson for Poilievre said that the Conservative leader wouldn’t be able to act upon the information he received from the CSIS briefing and rejected the terms of that meeting.
Carney, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green co-leader Elizabeth May all have their security clearance.
The public inquiry into foreign interference named China and India as the main foreign interference adversaries in Canada.
