OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday ceded to opposition pressure to expand a public inquiry into election interference to also probe allegations of treason against some lawmakers for secretly working with foreign governments.
Legislators have been pressing Trudeau’s Liberal government to name names following the revelations made last week in a heavily redacted national security committee report.
It also claimed that China and India meddled in Canadian party leadership campaigns, including that of Trudeau’s main rival, Tory leader Pierre Poilievre.
MPs were expected on Tuesday to pass an opposition motion calling for an independent inquiry that is already looking into foreign interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections to scrutinize possible treason too.
The inquiry led by Justice Marie-Josee Hogue was launched last September.
“I think it’s extremely important that we continue to take foreign interference with all the seriousness that it requires,” Trudeau said.
The opposition motion is non-binding on the government, but he said his Liberals would vote with opposition parties to ask Hogue to further investigate the claims so that “Canadians can have confidence in the integrity of their democracy.”
In the House of Commons earlier, opposition parties urged transparency.
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