OTTAWA—The new committee overseeing Canada’s spies is continuing its crucial first year of operations without Conservative MPs at the table.

Andrew Scheer’s office told the Star the Conservative leader had not yet decided who he’ll recommend to replace Tony Clement, who was booted out of the party he helped build after he became embroiled in scandal over his online sexual behaviour last week.

Clement was the only Conservative MP on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP). The other seat reserved for Conservative MPs on the committee has been vacant since Ontario MP Gord Brown died suddenly last May. Vern White, a Conservative senator, remains on the committee.

But a representative for NSICOP told the Star Tuesday that despite the absence of MPs from the official opposition, the committee would continue its work.

“The committee’s work, as announced on our website, is well underway,” wrote Rennie Marcoux, the committee’s executive director, in a brief statement.

Liberal MP David McGuinty, who chairs the committee, did not respond to multiple interview requests.

Read more:

Attempts to expose former Conservative MP Tony Clement’s online sexual activities go back to last summer, women say

Former Conservative MP Tony Clement admits to multiple acts of infidelity

Opinion | Susan Delacourt: With his sexting adventures, Clement has got himself into three kinds of trouble

Clement resigned from his role on the committee last Tuesday, claiming he was being extorted over intimate images and a video he had sent to an unknown person, who he believed to be a consenting woman. The longtime Parry Sound-Muskoka MP claimed that person demanded 50,000 Euros.

MPs on the committee are required by law to inform the Privy Council Office, the department which supports the prime minister, of “any change in their personal circumstances” that would affect their top secret security clearance. Sources told the Star that Clement did so days before going public with the allegations, and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office was made aware of the allegations.

But two women who spoke to the Star said Clement was aware someone was trying to expose his online activities months before that. The two women — whose identities the Star has agreed to protect — both say they had a relationship with the married 57-year-old MP, one online, one offline.

There is no indication that Canada’s national security was compromised through the affair.

When Scheer does recommend replacements for Clement and Brown, those MPs will require security screening and to be brought up to speed on the committee’s highly-sensitive work — suggesting it could take some time.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

NSICOP is currently undertaking two major studies: how the Government of Canada sets its intelligence priorities, which informs the work of the spy agencies, and a separate look into the intelligence activities of the Department of National Defence.

A third report, into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s much-mocked India trip, is due for public release by Dec. 3.

Read more about: