The federal government may, for national security reasons, disclose some of that evidence to investigations investigating the use of the emergency law without publicly disclosing that information, the commissioner overseeing the investigations said. has decided.
His October 26th dominate, Judge Paul Rouleau, who heads the Public Order Emergency Committee, said the Liberal government received “in the absence of the public” some of the evidence called by the committee’s lawyers because the disclosure was “harmful”. I asked for it. for national security. ”
The request also required that witnesses interrogated on the basis of classified evidence be interrogated behind closed doors for the same reason.
“Having considered the government’s allegations, I am satisfied that I have been held accountable for this evidence, even though I have not been in public,” Rouleau ruled.
Rouleau said the evidence included a classified version of an agency report (IR) filed by the government regarding the role of the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS) in response to the Freedom Convoy protests earlier this year. Stated.
“The classified version of the lR, in the government’s view, augments the public version with information that would be detrimental to national security if released to the public,” Rouleau said.
Neither version has been made public, but the judge’s ruling said the unclassified version was released to all parties given legal standing in the investigation on October 6.
“Injury Categories”
Rouleau said the government held closed-door hearings related to the classified report after commission attorneys told the government their intention to investigate both versions of the CSIS witnesses and the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Center (ITAC) witnesses. He said he requested a meeting.
“In response to this notice, the government has applied to me in writing, in accordance with Commission rules, for CSIS and ITAC witnesses permission to hear and unilaterally hear the confidential version of the IR. , in the absence of the public and the parties,” the judge said.
The Trudeau administration has stated that the disclosure of classified evidence may be subject to several “criterias,” including past or current CSIS investigations, operational and investigative techniques, relationships with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and the safety of employees and informants. “category of injury” would be at risk. ”
Rouleau stressed that his ruling “releves only to the manner in which the evidence is first summoned,” but that he will ultimately decide whether to publish it after hearing all the evidence.
“Once we hear the evidence, we will decide whether the evidence should be kept secret,” he said.
“I may decide that some or all of the evidence may be made public, such as a summary that explains the evidence without disclosing information that should remain confidential.”
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Isaac Teo is a Toronto-based reporter for the Epoch Times.