Liberals agree to include Conservative senator on national security committee boycotted by O’Toole
Global News
Conservatives have boycotted Parliament’s national security committee in a dispute over public release of documents related to scientists fired from a Winnipeg lab.
The Liberals are offering a spot on Parliament’s national security committee to a Conservative senator despite Erin O’Toole’s boycott of the review body.
A letter obtained by Global News from Sen. Don Plett, the Conservative leader in the Senate, urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to include a Conservative senator on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP).
But Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole — who is facing a vote on his leadership at a Conservative caucus meeting Wednesday morning — has boycotted the review body over a dispute about documents related to two scientists fired from a high-security Winnipeg microbiology lab.
The ongoing dispute has raised concerns about politicizing national security review and oversight in Canada, only a few short years after the country established dedicated Parliamentary review into intelligence issues.
Global News reached out to both Plett and O’Toole’s office on Tuesday. Calls and emails were not returned as of Wednesday morning.
In the letter, Plett accused Trudeau of “ignoring” the advice of the Conservative Senate leadership to appoint Sen. Fabian Manning to the committee.
“Your decision to ignore the advice of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate introduces an unprecedented level of partisanship in the appointment process,” Plett charged, suggesting it “risks undermining public confidence” in national security review.
“Furthermore, your decision also effectively sidelines the more than six million Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party in the September 2021 federal election.”