Considering the Conservatives, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have publicly banded together in a show of electoral force, an independent public inquiry into China’s alleged interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections is almost a certainty.
It would be 172 Opposition votes to the Liberals’ 158, so the final outcome wouldn’t even be close.
What the public would learn, however, is also almost a certainty—a certainty to be “nothing whatsoever” since much of the testimony would fall under national security and would therefore be deemed secret.
Entire transcripts would be redacted.
While multiple media reports have detailed allegations of foreign interference, including attempts to co-opt candidates, the top bureaucrat at the Department of Public Safety told a committee of MPs studying foreign election inference that there are no active RCMP investigations underway into the last election.
“I can confirm that the RCMP is not investigating any of the allegations that are arising from the last election,” said Shawn Tupper, also deputy minister of Emergency Preparedness.
Jody Thomas, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser, told MPs on the procedure and House affairs committee that she and other officials have routinely briefed the PM about election interference by China — the “greatest threat,” she said— as well as other bad foreign actors like Russia and Iran.
Trudeau, however, has brushed it all off as if it were no big deal.
A recent survey by Angus Reid, though, has nearly 70% of Canadians believing the federal government is “afraid to stand up” to Beijing amid mounting evidence that the Chinese regime did interfere in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
The poll found those who said they voted for the Conservatives in the last election were most likely to say Ottawa feared Beijing (91%), followed by 78% of past Bloc Québécois voters, 62% of NDP voters, and 46% of Liberal voters.
Last Friday, Global News named Shanghai-born Liberal MP Han Dong (Don Valley North) as one of the 11 candidates China sought to help in the 2019 election.
Global said seniors were bused in to vote for Dong during his nomination battle with his name written on their arm. They reported that Chinese international students in the Toronto area were told to vote for him or lose their visa status.
But it gets curiouser and curiouser. Earlier this month, Dong stood to help unanimously pass Bill C-35 at third reading. The bill was the formalization of the Trudeau government’s childcare deal and was supported by all 323 MPs present.
Moments later, 322 MPs voted to condemn China’s genocide “against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.” It was sponsored by a Liberal MP and had the support of every MP in the House.
Han Dong, however, had slipped out of the Commons before the vote could be called.
Trudeau has so far ducked calls to launch an inquiry. He has argued the House of Commons committee currently studying interference is the best forum for this sort of investigation, and wholly supported Dong.
He labelled criticisms of Dong as “racist.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said, however, that while the Commons committee’s work must continue, the “massive” news that Beijing and its agents may have interfered in Canada’s democratic process also demands an outside review.
And that inquiry, he said, should be chaired by someone who is acceptable to all political parties to ensure its independence.
