National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians provides the Prime Minister with its Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada’s Democratic Processes and Institutions
Ottawa, March 22, 2024 — The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) has provided its Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada’s Democratic Processes and Institutions to the Prime Minister. It also provided the report to the Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs; the Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; and the Minister of National Defence.
The report was submitted consistent with subsection 21(2) of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act.
The report includes the Committee’s unanimous findings and recommendations.
The Prime Minister will now consider whether there is any information in the report, the disclosure of which would be injurious to national security, national defence or international relations, or constitutes solicitor-client information. Section 21(6) of the NSICOP Act requires that the Prime Minister table a declassified version of the report within 30 sitting days of Parliament. Until then, its contents remain classified.
Background
NSICOP was established under the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act on June 22, 2017. It may review:
- the legislative, regulatory, policy, administrative and financial framework for national security and intelligence;
- any activity carried out by a department that relates to national security or intelligence, unless the activity is an ongoing operation and the appropriate Minister determines that the review would be injurious to national security; and,
- any matter relating to national security or intelligence that a minister of the Crown refers to the Committee.
NSICOP members hold the highest level of security clearance, are bound by the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act and meet in private.