Ottawa [Canada], October 17 : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his testimony of fact-finding hearings of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference (PIFI) said that it was "absolutely" acceptable for his government to pass a bill designed to help combat foreign interference, Canada-based National Post reported.
As per National Post, Trudeau, who was the final witness of the hearing on Wednesday, said that there were several intelligence or policy dossiers relating to foreign interference, which he never saw.
He cited an example of a "targeting paper" by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on the targeting of Canadian Parliamentarians by Chinese government in 2021. Former CSIS director David Vigneault during his testimony said that he thought the document should have been provided to Trudeau, as per National Post.
National Post reported that Trudeau said the National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) sorted information and determined what he needed to know. He said the NSIA Commission Lead Counsel Shantona Chaudhry, made the right decision in not showing him a document and generally downplayed the novelty of their content.
"I have faith, having looked at the paper, that it was indeed the right decision by the national security intelligence advisor, that it wasn't a document that significantly added... to my understanding of the situation," Trudeau said while talking about the targeting paper.
"The fact that Chinese diplomats are categorizing MPs in their outreach... is not itself particularly revelatory to me, or new information for its fairly obvious. It is part of what diplomats do in every country around the world" including Canada, National Post quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, United Kingdom on Wednesday said that it is in contact with the Canadian government about serious developments outlined in the probe conducted in Canada into Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar case. The spokesperson called India's cooperation with Canada's legal process the "right next step."
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