Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre levelled serious charges against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, claiming that Trudeau was working against the interests of Canada.
Poilievre made the claims while responding to the prime minister’s refusal to launch an independent inquiry into allegations that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned the government of Chinese election interference in 2019 and 2019.
“(CSIS) must be very worried about how the prime minister is working against the interests of his own country and his own people,” said Poilievre.
“They’ve been warning him for years about this. And what has he done? He’s covered it up, even encouraged it to continue.”
“And so they are so concerned about how the prime minister is acting against Canada’s interest and in favour of a foreign dictatorship’s interests, that they are actually releasing this information publicly,” he continued.
On Monday, Trudeau announced new steps to investigate claims that the Beijing Communist regime influenced Canada’s elections unfairly – but stopped short of committing to a public inquiry into the matter.
Trudeau said he would ask the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, along with the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency to look into the claims of foreign interference.
The special rapporteur, who has yet to be named, will look into the concerns and give recommendations on how to address the problem, according to Trudeau.
At the core of the claims are allegations which include indirect contributions by China to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and bussing supporters to a Liberal MP’s nomination meeting.
As per a report by the Globe and Mail in early February, intelligence sources indicate China has been engaging in a covert campaign to influence 11 largely Liberal candidates in the 2021 election.
The campaign’s intended goal was ensuring a minority Liberal government while also undermining the chances of certain Conservative candidates who China viewed as opposed to its interests.
Global News also reported that Liberal MP Han Dong was assisted by China during his nomination to be the Liberal candidate in the 2019 election.
At question is a $1 million donation by Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin to the Trudeau Foundation at the behest of China.
Trudeau has cast shade over such claims, calling them “partisan accusations.”
“It is upon all of us, as leaders, to ensure that even as we are strengthening our capacity as democracies and as institutions to respond to that, that we’re not falling into the trap of actually weakening Canadians’ confidence in those institutions by leaning in heavily into partisan accusations,” said Trudeau on Tuesday.
