Thread by @MichaelChongMP

1/ The Liberal gov’t says handing over the Winnipeg lab docs to Parliament would undermine national security.

This is the world turned upside down. The opposite is true.

It’s the government that’s undermined national security - not Parliament.

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theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…

2/ Here follows some of the recent security breaches, leaks and lapses by the government - and these are just some of many:

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3/ In Oct., the government leaked the names of several hundred vulnerable Afghans seeking refuge from the Taliban, putting their lives at risk.

These Afghans helped Canadian soldiers during the war & are being targeted & executed by the Taliban.

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cbc.ca/amp/1.6224894

4/ CSIS has warned the gov’t for YEARS that Huawei threatens national security & intellectual property.

Yet the gov’t does NOTHING. It hasn’t banned Huawei from Canada’s telecom networks & even partners with Huawei to fund university research.

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theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…

5/ In Feb. 2020, reports said the personal information of 144,000 Canadians was breached by the government.

"There's a significant problem with the way that the government protects personal information," said privacy lawyer David Fraser.

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cbc.ca/amp/1.5457502

6/ In August 2020, 11,200 CRA and KeyGC accounts of Canadians were breached by hackers.

And last month, CRA had to shut down Canadians’ access to their taxpayer accounts because of a “security vulnerability”.

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7/ None of these security breaches happened in Parliament. All happened in the government.

In fact, when the CRA breach occurred, Parliament IT sent an email saying Parliament’s systems were secure & unaffected b/c they’re architected differently from gov’t systems.

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8/ And then there is the issue prompting the government to falsely claim Parliament getting documents would undermine national security:

The national security breaches at the government’s top level National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

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theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…

9/ It’s the government that undermined national security by allowing Chinese military scientist Feihu Yan of the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Medical Science access to work in the lab - not Parliament.

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theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…

10/ Other gov’ts have had national security breaches, but none as egregious as:

- allowing a Chinese military scientist access to a top gov’t lab handling the world’s deadliest viruses & then
- allowing that research to be transferred to China.

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theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…

11/ These egregious national security breaches occur in Canada precisely because of a lack of parliamentary oversight.

They occur because the government is not held accountable for its national security & intelligence activities by Parliament.

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12/ These breaches will continue until Parliament asserts itself & holds the government accountable for its national security and intelligence activities - by establishing a committee of Parliament that has access to highly classified national security documents.

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13/ These breaches also have foreign policy consequences. Increasingly, Canada is not seen as a reliable security partner & ally.

We’re not part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. We’ve been excluded from AUKUS, the new defence pact between Australia, the UK & US.

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14/ Canada is an outliner in not having parliamentary oversight over the government’s national security & intelligence activities.

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15/ While there is the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), despite its name, it’s not a committee of Parliament but a committee of the PMO. It’s the fox in charge of the henhouse.

Here’s a tweet thread on this:

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https://twitter.com/michaelchongmp/status/1399824000847691777

16/ The UK has the the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC).

It’s a committee of Parliament. Another words it’s a committee of the legislative branch of government, not the executive branch.

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isc.independent.gov.uk

17/ The ISC consists of 9 members appointed by Parliament. The chair is elected by its members. The members are subject to Section 1(1)(b) of the Official Secrets Act 1989 and are routinely given access to highly classified material in carrying out their duties.

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18/ The US Congress has committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that oversee US government national security and intelligence activities, committees which have access to highly classified documents.

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intelligence.senate.gov

19/ Last spring, the PM used NSICOP as an excuse not to handover the Winnipeg lab docs as ordered by Parliament.

In doing so, he confirmed our worst fears about the committee being used as a Potemkin village to shield the gov’t from real accountability & oversight.

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20/ That’s why Conservatives are boycotting NSICOP until a bill is introduced to reform the committee into a committee of Parliament, with the full powers that committees in other democracies have to oversee the government’s national security & intelligence activities.

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21/ That’s also why Conservatives continue to pursue the government to handover the Winnipeg lab documents to Parliament, not some ad hoc committee outside Parliament.

END

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