For anyone looking at which part National Post decided to omit:
Despite this unprecedented access, obstacles remained in accessing all relevant
information. Notwithstanding the four Cabinet documents, federal departments and
agencies withheld or refused the disclosure of over a thousand documents, in whole or
in part, on the basis that they were Cabinet confidences. Specifically, close to a quarter
of these documents were withheld in their entirety. The Committee is concerned that
some departments and agencies may be inappropriately using claims of Cabinet
confidences to avoid disclosing information to the Committee.
The Committee was pleased to note that, further to its comment on this issue in its
Annual Report 2022, the government has begun to identify which relevant documents
are being withheld and on what basis, including claims of Cabinet confidence. This
has allowed it to conclude that there are many such claims being exercised for each
review. The Committee reiterates the comments made in its Special Report on the
National Security and Intelligence Activities of Global Affairs Canada in asking the
government to address this issue. It continues to state that while a legislative change
to the definition of Cabinet confidence is desirable, in the near term, a clear statement
of policy that NSICOP should be barred from receiving only core Cabinet secrets
would go some way to addressing the issues being experienced. Specifically, such a
statement could outline that information withheld from the Committee under section
14(a) of the NSICOP Act would be limited to that which is provided directly to Cabinet
or ministers attending Cabinet committee meetings and which reveals options, Cabinet
deliberations or discussions of these meetings.
Notwithstanding the four Cabinet documents, federal departments and
agencies withheld or refused the disclosure of over a thousand documents, in whole or
in part, on the basis that they were Cabinet confidences.
Wait, is this even a Liberal thing then? It sounds like they requested information from federal departments and those departments said “We have these documents but cannot share them due to Cabinet confidence.” That doesn’t sound like it involves a single elected entity, nevermind a Liberal one.
Ultimately it is the current government saying no.
The rest the parties could easily pass a bill where NSICOP has full access to everything and if any of the members of found be using the information for political advantage they would be significantly prosecuted, but as usual I think this is more about theatrics then making things better.
Looking at the previous article about this that has more quotes: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/liberal-government-blocking-over-1000-documents
I did find most of the quotes under the section “NSICOP’s access to relevant documents” of the actual National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Annual Report 2023
For anyone looking at which part National Post decided to omit:
Really the question would any of these other parties allowed unfettered access to all their document from National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians which does include opposition MP’s.
Wait, is this even a Liberal thing then? It sounds like they requested information from federal departments and those departments said “We have these documents but cannot share them due to Cabinet confidence.” That doesn’t sound like it involves a single elected entity, nevermind a Liberal one.
Ultimately it is the current government saying no.
The rest the parties could easily pass a bill where NSICOP has full access to everything and if any of the members of found be using the information for political advantage they would be significantly prosecuted, but as usual I think this is more about theatrics then making things better.
Ooooh!!! Nice job! Yeah that says to me that this might be due to the agencies and not the liberals.