Trudeau appointed, Foreign interference Judge Marie-Josee Hogue, "blocs full standing" to Conservatives, NDP ...why only them?
Dec 6 2023
OTTAWA – Canada’s foreign interference inquiry will include opposition parties, but the judge running the inquiry won’t grant them the right to ask witnesses questions or see all the evidence.
On Monday, ahead of public hearings expected in January, Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue released a decision on who will have standing at the inquiry.
Hogue divided the question of standing into two groups; those with party standing, giving them the ability to question witnesses and see all evidence and those with intervenor standing giving them the right to make submissions and see any evidence submitted in public.
Hogue said she gave party standing to those who have something on the line in the commission’s findings.
“This type of interest generally arises either from some form of personal or reputational interest in the outcome of the Commission’s work. It may also stem from the formal role an applicant plays in countering foreign interference or in the electoral process,” she said in her ruling. Hogue found people like Han Dong, a former Liberal MP who was removed from the party’s caucus over media reports he had benefited from foreign interference and Michael Chan, the deputy mayor of Markham, who has also been accused of involvement in Chinese foreign interference both have a direct personal interest in the proceedings.
The government and the commissioner of elections also got full party standing as did several diaspora groups in the Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian communities.
Hogue granted the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), the NDP and former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole intervenor standing at the inquiry, which means they won’t be able to ask questions of any witnesses who appear.
She warned she would not allow the inquiry to become a partisan debate.
“I am therefore advising the CPC, and indeed all participants, that I will not allow this Commission to become a partisan debate between opposing political factions,” she said in her ruling. “All must participate in this Inquiry with the sole purpose of assisting the Commission and not for any partisan purpose.”
Hogue said if she thought the Conservatives were not living up to her expectations she reserved the right to revoke their standing at the hearing. Conservative MP Michael Chong was directly targeted by China applied with the Conservatives, Hogue said she would consider any application Chong put forward for separate standing at the commission.
The inquiry’s public hearings are expected to come in two phases with some hearings coming early in 2024 and focused on the facts of what happened in the 2019 and 2021 elections. Hogue has to file an interim report on that issue by the end of February.
Another set of public hearings is expected in the fall of 2024 focused on policy questions about the government’s ability to counter foreign interference. Hopefully this foreign interference inquiry will be concluded before the next federal election, 2025.
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