Michael Cooper moved, — That, in relation to its order of reference of Wednesday, May 10, 2023, concerning the intimidation campaign orchestrated by Wei Zhao against the Member for Wellington—Halton Hills and other Members, the committee

(a) make use, for the purposes of this study, of the evidence received during its study on foreign election interference, without limiting the witnesses who may be called;

(b) make use, for the purposes of this study, of the evidence received by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics during its study on foreign interference, without limiting the witnesses who may be called;

(c) invite each of the following to appear on their own:

(i) the Honourable Michael Chong, for one hour,

(ii) Eric Janse, Acting Clerk of the House of Commons, for one hour,

(iii) the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, for one hour, (iv) the Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, for one hour,

(v) the Honourable Bill Blair, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness, for one hour,

(vi) Jody Thomas, National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for two hours,

(vii) David Vigneault, Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, for two hours,

(viii) David Morrison, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Acting National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for two hours,

(ix) Mike MacDonald, former Acting National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for one hour,

(x) Vincent Rigby, former National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for one hour,

(xi) Michael Duheme, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, for one hour, and

(xii) Cong Peiwu, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Canada, for two hours;

(d) directs the parties to provide their preliminary lists of other witnesses to the clerk of the committee within one week;

(e) order the production,

(i) within one week, of the July 2021 CSIS report entitled “People’s Republic of China Foreign Interference in Canada: A Critical National Security Threat”, together with all records concerning the transmission to, distribution within, analysis of and handling by, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development and the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, of this report, and

(ii) within three weeks, of all other memoranda, briefing notes, e-mails, records of conversations, and any other relevant documents, including any drafts, which are in the possession of any government department or agency, including the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, the Critical Election Incident Protocol Panel, any minister’s office and the Prime Minister’s Office, containing information concerning planning or efforts by, or on behalf of, foreign governments or other foreign state actors to intimidate a Member of the House of Commons, provided that

(iii) these documents be deposited without redaction with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, in both official languages,

(iv) a copy of the documents shall also be deposited with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, in both official languages, with any proposed redaction of information which, in the government’s opinion, could reasonably be expected to compromise the identities of employees or sources or intelligence-collecting methods of Canadian or allied intelligence agencies,

(v) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall promptly notify the committee whether the Office is satisfied that the documents were produced as ordered, and, if not, the Chair shall be instructed to present forthwith, on behalf of the committee, a report to the House outlining the material facts of the situation,

(vi) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall assess the redactions proposed by the government, pursuant to subparagraph (iv), to determine whether the Office agrees that the proposed redactions conform with the criteria set out in subparagraph (iv) and

(A) if it agrees, it shall provide the documents, as redacted by the government pursuant to subparagraph (iv), to the clerk of the committee, or

(B) if it disagrees with some or all of the proposed redactions, it shall provide a copy of the documents, redacted in the manner the Office determines would conform with the criteria set out in paragraph (iv), together with a report indicating the number, extent and nature of the government's proposed redactions which were disagreed with, to the clerk of the committee, and

(vii) the clerk of the committee shall cause the documents, provided by the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel pursuant to subparagraph (vi), to be distributed to the members of the committee and to be published on the committee’s website forthwith upon receipt; and

(f) makes the evidence received during this study available for its study on foreign election interference.

Debate arose thereon.

Ryan Turnbull moved, — That the debate be now adjourned.

The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Greg Fergus, Mark Gerretsen, Matthew Green, Christine Normandin, Sherry Romanado, Ruby Sahota, Ryan Turnbull — 7;

NAYS: Blaine Calkins, Michael Cooper, John Nater, Warren Steinley — 4.

Mark Bourrie, Peter German and Michel Juneau-Katsuya made statements and answered questions.

At 11:13 a.m., the sitting was suspended.

At 11:18 a.m., the sitting resumed.

Nancy Bangsboll, Thomas Juneau and Christian Leuprecht made statements and answered questions.

At 12:01 p.m., the sitting was suspended.

At 12:06 p.m., the sitting resumed.

Jenni Byrne, having made a solemn affirmation, made a statement and answered questions.