The premier, the attorney general, and the house leader all say they know nothing about claims from former Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart that a B.C. cabinet minister is under a federal investigation for alleged foreign interference.
B.C. Conservative interim Leader Trevor Halford asked Premier David Eby about the “startling accusations” during Question Period on Tuesday (May 5). Halford says Stewart said he’s been interviewed “for about four hours” by lawyers working for the federal government about a B.C. cabinet minister under investigation for collaborating with the Chinese government.
Stewart, who is also a former NDP MP, made the claims on Jas Johal’s CKNW show on Monday. He said it’s something he reported to senior B.C. NDP officials.
Halford wanted to know when Premier David Eby learned about the accusations.
The premier said these are “false allegations” with “zero information aside from a radio interview.”
Eby said that, on losing the last municipal election, Stewart alleged that the Chinese government was collaborating with a candidate who ran against him and caused him to lose the election. Eby, who went door knocking with Stewart, said “I can assure this house that he did not lose the election because of the Chinese government.”
The premier added that Stewart has made the allegations before, and he is aware of them. But Eby said he took “significant steps, including significant personal disclosure,” to the federal government in order to obtain top-secret clearance to access top-secret briefings from RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
“I have had multiple such briefings. At every briefing, I ask, ‘Is there any individual, any company, any information at all that you need to share with me that would influence the government’s decisions about access to information, contracts, or anything else?’ because we want to be a good partner in national security,” Eby said.
“And I can advise this House that never once has CSIS or the RCMP shared any concerns at all about any member of government caucus.”
But Eby says he has “never once” been briefed by either the RCMP or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about a caucus member or cabinet minister.
When asked, Attorney General Niki Sharma said she also has “no information at all about any of the allegations put forward by the former mayor of Vancouver.”
West Kelowna-Peachland MLA Macklin McCall, who is also the attorney general critic, noted that collusion with a foreign government is a serious allegation. He wanted to know what actions the provincial government has taken to ensure there are no other cabinet ministers allegedly involved with “inappropriate relations with foreign governments.”
Eby said his government has multiple members who have obtained top-secret clearance in order to be able to access critical information from national security services, including CSIS and the RCMP. He added that B.C. has also successfully lobbied the federal government to change the CSIS act to enable Canada’s spy service to share direct information with the B.C. government if there is any threat to national security that they are required to act on.
B.C. NDP house leader Mike Farnworth told media afterward that “frankly, it’s ridiculous.”
“If any member of our caucus or cabinet was involved in these allegations, they would not be a member of the cabinet, and they would not be a member of our caucus,” he said.
Asked about Stewart’s claims that he briefed senior B.C. NDP officials, Farnworth said, “that’s simply not true.”
Black Press Media has reached out to Stewart for comment.