Michael Kempa: Downplaying the treason of MPs and senators is a betrayal of Canadian democracy

This week, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) revealed downright explosive information with the release of its latest special report: that sitting Canadian MPs and senators have been “witting” beneficiaries of foreign interference in Canadian political processes.

The government’s insipid response will not protect Canadian democracy—the first order of business for any serious country.

The NSICOP report is just the latest in a stream of official reviews detailing how the People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, and other ideological opponent states have surreptitiously meddled in Canadian affairs.

NSICOP confirms much of what we already knew from the timid report of “Special Rapporteur” David Johnston (May 2023) and the recent, rushed interim report of “Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference” headed by Justice Hogue (May 2024).

The dominos have fallen, one by one. Each report, in order of release, has traced, with increasingly greater detail and conviction, the ways in which Beijing and New Delhi have extended their tentacles into our election nomination contests (where electoral candidates are selected by local party members), clandestinely injected money into their preferred candidates’ campaigns, and pressured diaspora communities to toe the line of their “mother country” while in Canada, an ocean away.