It is safe to say that the Liberals’ filibuster to keep Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff from testifying at committee was barely noticed across the country.
Games of inside baseball rarely are.
It is also safe to say that the Liberals’ allowance for Katie Telford to testify will earn them bonus points. For the party, that is. Not Trudeau.
Trudeau had been dancing around to avoid a full-scale public inquiry to interference by Communist China into our electoral process. He has stalled things by appointing a special rapporteur in old friend David Johnston to decide if a full-scale inquiry is needed to quell the public’s appetite for the truth.
He had told security organizations to up their game. He has been doing the ol’ duck-and-weave. But at least the conflict over Telford testifying is over.
“While there are serious constraints on what can be said in public about sensitive intelligence matters, in an effort to make Parliament work, Ms. Telford has agreed to appear at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee as part of their study,” Trudeau’s office said in a statement.
Everyone with skin in the game can now exhale.
“If the Liberal government, if Justin Trudeau doesn’t stop the obstruction that’s going on in committee, if Justin Trudeau doesn’t allow his chief of staff to testify, we will force him to do so, by voting with the opposition,” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said earlier in the day, pointing still to a public inquiry rather than a parliamentary study as the more apt venue for further investigation.
“Right now there’s a lot of serious questions about what the Prime Minister’s Office knew, when they knew it, and what they did about that. We would prefer that there was a public inquiry that was investigating this and finding out those answers.
“In the meantime, these questions are very important and so we want to make sure that Canadians have an opportunity to hear what was known, and when it was known, and what was done with that information,” Singh said.
All of this was sparked by the Globe and Mail and Global News reports, citing largely unnamed intelligence sources, alleging specific attempts by Beijing to alter election outcomes, and what the opposition thinks is an insufficient response by the Liberal government.
Officials have repeatedly asserted the integrity of both elections held, despite China’s interference efforts.
On Monday, the Conservatives had the House debate a motion they put forward that, if passed, would have seen the House instruct the opposition-dominated ethics committee to strike a fresh study into Chinese interference in the last two federal elections.
The motion contains clear instructions that the committee call Telford to testify under oath before mid-April, followed by numerous other federal officials and party players believed to have insight into allegations of meddling during the 2019 and 2021 campaigns.
During question period on Monday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, along with MPs Melissa Lantsman and Michael Barrett, pushed for the Liberals to allow Telford to testify.
Poilievre said Canadians needed to know what Telford and Trudeau both knew about election interference and went on to target NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh whose party’s votes would be necessary in order for her to be called for testimony.
“The question for (Singh) is will he help his boss, the prime minister, cover up or will he vote for the prime minister’s chief of staff to testify, which is it?” Poilievre asked, though during question period only those on the Liberal bench would be able to answer his questions.
The Liberal government has been under immense pressure to explain what it knew about foreign interference.
It’s an issue that could hardly be shoved under the rug.
