E-Paper
Did China interfere in 2019, 2021 Canada polls? Canada’s parl committee passes motion for inquiry
Whether such an inquiry will be held will depend on the government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has maintained that while China did attempt to interfere in Canadian elections, its efforts did not alter the outcome
Toronto: A Canadian parliamentary committee has passed a motion calling for a public inquiry into allegations of foreign interference in national elections, following a series of media reports about Beijing allegedly attempting to influence the 2019 and 2021 polls in favour of the ruling Liberal Party.
The motion was passed on Thursday after opposition MPs on the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Standing Committee voted in its favour while Liberal members opposed it.
Whether such an inquiry will be held will depend on the government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has maintained that while China did attempt to interfere in Canadian elections, its efforts did not alter the outcome.
On Tuesday, the Canadian government released a report authored by retired bureaucrat Morris Rosenberg that took a similar line, as it said, “National security agencies saw attempts at foreign interference, but not enough to have met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity.”
However, that report has been dismissed by the opposition as Rosenberg was CEO of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation between 2014 and 2018 and during that period, it received a large donation from a Chinese businessman. The outlet, the Globe and Mail, reported that Canada’s spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), had recorded a conversation between an unnamed Chinese diplomat and the billionaire Zhang Bin, with the official instructing the latter to donate a substantial amount to the foundation as the Liberals were favourably placed in the 2015 polls. Trudeau became Prime Minister in 2015 when his party came to power with a majority. The foundation announced on Wednesday that it was returning the amount received so far, CA$ 140,000 ($103,134). In a statement, its president and CEO Pascale Fournier said, “We cannot keep any donation that may have been sponsored by a foreign government and would not knowingly do so.”
“In light of these recent allegations, the foundation has refunded to the donor all amounts received with respect to the donation pledge,” she added. The foundation was established to continue the legacy of the late Canadian Prime Minister, the current incumbent’s father.
A series of exposes have increased pressure on the Trudeau government. On February 17, the Globe and Mail noted, “China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign as Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – but only to another minority government – and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing.” That report was based on CSIS documents.
Earlier this week, the outlet Global News cited a December 20, 2021 report from CSIS that said the “Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the People’s Republic of China can support”.
