Ottawa, ON – Michael Cooper, Conservative Shadow Minister for Democratic Reform, released the following statement on the Liberals’ attempt to shut down an investigation into the serious national security breach that is reported to have occurred following the Liberal nomination contest in Don Valley North:

“After eight years of Justin Trudeau, Canada’s democratic institutions have never been more vulnerable. This has become even more clear as we learned from a recent report in The Globe and Mail that there was a criminal leak from this Liberal government which resulted in a Liberal member informing then-Liberal candidate, Han Dong, that he was being monitored by CSIS.

“As a consequence of this leak and the ensuing tip, the work being done by our national security agencies to protect Canadian democracy was clearly compromised. This information could only have been obtained from a classified national security briefing, meaning only a small number of individuals in the Liberal government would have had access to classified information from CSIS.

“Despite the serious nature of this issue, the Liberals voted to shut down this investigation into this issue, just as they previously tried to cover up the scale of interference in Canada’s democracy for months until Common Sense Conservatives forced the Prime Minister to call an inquiry.

“Common Sense Conservatives will fight to get to the bottom of these criminal leaks at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee after a majority of members at Ethics Committee voted to refer this matter there. Trudeau must end his cover-up and start placing Canada’s national security ahead of his partisan interests.”