Tories’ Foreign Critic Says Trudeau Used Inquiry for Partisan Attack

Conservative MP Michael Chong is accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of using his testimony at the foreign interference inquiry to launch a partisan attack against the Tories.
The prime minister’s reluctance to disclose the names of parliamentarians involved in foreign interference suggests his motivation of “wanting to keep all of this secret for his own partisan purposes,” Chong, the Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic, said in an Oct. 17 interview with CBC News.
“The prime minister used the public inquiry as an opportunity for a partisan attack job to smear the Conservative Party and the Conservative Party leader,” Chong added.
Trudeau said in his Oct. 16 testimony that he had names of “candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada,” as well as other current and former parliamentarians, who are “engaged or at high risk of or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference.”
Chong noted that Trudeau did not mention the intelligence he has regarding members of the Liberal caucus who may be involved in foreign interference until questioned on the issue by the Conservative Party lawyer.
While other opposition parties have accepted the government’s offer to obtain security clearance to view the full NSICOP report, Poilievre has rejected it, saying it would limit his ability as Opposition leader to openly criticize the government on security matters.
The Conservatives have urged the Liberal government to disclose the names of the parliamentarians involved in foreign interference, saying that withholding this information casts suspicion on all lawmakers.
The Liberal government says disclosing the names publicly would be irresponsible, and that some of the information hasn’t been corroborated.