O’Toole’s boycott leaves security panel of parliamentarians with no Conservative MPs

OTTAWA —
There are no Conservative MPs among the newly named slate of parliamentarians to oversee the security-and-intelligence community following the party’s decision to boycott the body.

The government says Liberal MPs Patricia Lattanzio and James Maloney are joining the committee, while Liberals Brenda Shanahan and Peter Fragiskatos, as well as Conservatives Leona Alleslev and Rob Morrison, have left.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole pulled his party’s MPs from the committee last spring to protest the Liberal government’s refusal to hand over unredacted documents related to the firing of two scientists from Canada’s highest-security laboratory.

In a Dec. 17 letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, O’Toole said the Conservative boycott of the all-party National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, known as NSICOP, would continue in the new session of Parliament until the wraps are taken off those documents.

The committee, established in 2017, has the authority to review sensitive activities across the federal government.

It submits classified reports to the prime minister, which are later tabled in Parliament in edited form.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2022.