Canada’s Election Watchdog Opens Probe Into Allegations of Chinese Meddling to Keep Trudeau in Power
PM Trudeau stonewalling public investigation into Beijing’s interreference.
Canada’s federal election watchdog is investigating allegations that Communist China interfered in Country’s elections to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in office. The Commissioner of Canada Elections, which enforces federal election laws, began a review into reports of Chinese meddling after receiving “serious complaints,” Canadian media reported Thursday.
The decision came after a slew of leaked intelligence reports claiming that the Communist regime tried to tilt the outcomes of the elections in 2019 and 2021 in favor of Prime Minister Trudeau.
The election watchdog’s review is still short of a full public inquiry, which Prime Minister Trudeau is currently refusing to allow.
CSIS uncovered:
2014 Gov of China sponsored $1M donation to the Pierre Trudeau Foundation.
2019 China’s Communist Party interference
2021 elections—the PM refused to listen to CSIS.
2022 China having police stations in Canada.
To stop this destruction, Trudeau must resign. pic.twitter.com/83pzxnC76r
— Dr. Leslyn Lewis (@LeslynLewis) February 28, 2023
The public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported the election watchdog’s review:
The commissioner of Canada Elections — the watchdog that enforces Canada’s federal election laws — said Thursday her office has launched a review into allegations of foreign interference in the last two federal election campaigns.
In response to recent reports about Chinese interference in Canada’s democracy, Caroline Simard said Thursday that her office has received serious complaints about meddling that demand a closer look.
Simard said her office — which probes all alleged election violations, not just claims of foreign meddling — received 158 complaints concerning the 2019 election dealing with “10 situations.” There have been 16 complaints regarding “13 situations” in the 2021 campaign. Simard said all of those complaints have since been resolved.
After Global News reported claims last fall that China operates “a vast campaign of foreign interference” in Canadian politics, Simard said her office received three more complaints about Beijing’s alleged meddling.
Describing the mounting evidence pointing to Chinese election interference, the BBC reported Saturday:
In recent weeks, Canadian media have released a steady drip of reports, based on leaked intelligence, of detailed claims of Chinese meddling in the country’s last two federal elections in 2019 and 2021 – the latest Western nation to sound the alarm over concerns of foreign election interference. (…)
The allegations stem from leaked intelligence reports, which allege that Beijing diplomats and proxies in Canada tried to sway election outcomes in favour of the Liberals.
According to a series of reports in the Globe and Mail newspaper and by Global News, intelligence sources are concerned that China’s Communist Party interfered by putting pressure on its consulates in Canada to support certain candidates.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Trudeau is stonewalling a public inquiry into the Chinese election meddling.
“Against growing calls for a public inquiry, Trudeau spent time Friday defending his government’s efforts to buck foreign interference attempts,” the Politico reported. “Trudeau became increasingly combative with reporters in Winnipeg as he faced rolling questions about public trust and foreign interference.”
Watch as Justin Trudeau implies that it's racist to ask questions about Liberal MPs and allegations of China's interference in Canada's elections. Later he would state it to be racist, here he just implies it. pic.twitter.com/5ELSXIhQRZ
— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) February 27, 2023
Opposition Calls for Public Probe
While Prime Minister Trudeau rejected the calls for a full and open investigation, the opposition parties are calling for a public inquiry into the matter. The Reuters reported Wednesday:
Canadian opposition parties on Wednesday stepped up their push for a broad public inquiry into alleged foreign election interference, particularly by China, a move that Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not yet endorsed.
Recent media reports have alleged ongoing Chinese interference in Canada’s elections, with Trudeau this week denying one article saying his office was told by Canada’s spy agency to drop a Chinese Canadian candidate in 2019 because of his ties to Beijing.
Canada’s main opposition party called for an independent and public inquiry, headed by a commissioner who is selected with unanimous agreement of all federal parties in the parliament.
“We want to know exactly what the Chinese authoritarian government did, and whether there were political parties aware of those actions or not,” Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa.
New Democrats put forward a motion for a “full public inquiry” during a parliamentary committee collecting testimony on Wednesday from spy agencies and other security officials about possible Chinese meddling.
There is growing evidence that China has been grooming Trudeau for over a decade ! We need a full investigation pic.twitter.com/4KwtBypKzr
— Concerned Canadian (@Concern70732755) March 3, 2023
According to the Reuters, the majority of Canadians also believe that China interfered in their elections and want a inquiry:
A majority of Canadians want Trudeau to respond more forcefully to alleged election interference by China, according to a poll published on Wednesday.
Some 53% of respondents said they felt Canada’s response following a string of recent events was “not strong enough,” polling firm Angus Reid Institute said.
“Canadians are indicating that they expect their government to take this seriously,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the institute.
Some 65% of Canadians said they believe the Chinese government “definitely” or “probably” tried to interfere in the 2021 vote, according to the survey.
Canadian Spy Agency Launches Investigation to Uncover Whistleblowers
Canada’s main spy agency, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), launched an investigation — not to uncover a possible Chinese influence operation — but against whistleblowers within the agency who may have leaked the documents detailing Chinese interference to the public.
The Canadian newspaper Mail and Globe reported Thursday:
The head of Canada’s spy service says an investigation is under way to find those who leaked highly classified information on Chinese election interference, and suggested the whistleblowers may have been frustrated by the federal government’s handling of Beijing’s intrusion into the democratic process.
Appearing before a House of Commons committee investigating Chinese interference, David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, declined to answer questions about whether the government ignored warnings of China’s influence operations in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
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Comments
Biden, Trudeau, we are all governed by Chinese now…
When he first came into power, I thought Trudeau was a joke at best, yet here we are, Canada is China2 and we are not far behind with a demented fool in the lead…
I’d say, money well spent by China…
What power does this Canada Elections have to overturn elections if they are shown to be stolen? I am betting zip, zero, nada.
They are in the “investigation” phase and not an actual Inquiry into the election. All show, and no go possible.
Let us say that they say that Trudeau and Xi stole the election outright. In parliamentary countries, the PM [Trudeau] has tremendous power to rule by decree. For example, during the Truckers’ Strike, he cancelled the freedom of speech section of their Declaration of Rights and Liberties [like our Bill of Rights] and made it a crime to support the strike or to oppose him and his policies. Can he make it a crime to question the election results?
As noted above, China has a sizeable police, intelligence, and political infrastructure in Canada. Enough to eliminate any inconvenient Canadian politicians and civil servants perhaps. Especially since the Trudeau government will probably see, hear, and do nothing.
No, I am not a trusting soul.
Subotai Bahadur
“”Enough to eliminate any inconvenient Canadian politicians and civil servants perhaps.””
C’mon, man, that would make them no better than the Clintons.
Good luck with that Election Commission, you’ll find it and no one will believe or listen to you
Where’s Fang-Fang these days?
He did say he admired China’s dictatorship.