OTTAWA | Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is following in the footsteps of his NDP and Bloc Québécois counterparts and calling for an independent public inquiry into Chinese interference in the democratic process.
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“We can’t let this matter go away with an investigation in private and in secret. It needs to be public so Canadians can know what’s going on,” Poilievre said.
However, he would like to be assured that the commissioner is not close to the Liberal Party. He also demands that Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, be summoned and that intimidation of the Chinese community be on the agenda.
At the same time, before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which was urgently called back to study the file, NDP MP Peter Julian tabled a motion to call for a “national public inquiry into allegations of foreign interference in the Canadian democratic system”.
MPs will debate the motion tomorrow and are expected to vote immediately afterwards.
The isolated government
The minority Liberal government, supported by the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, Jody Thomas, is therefore now the only one in Parliament to oppose this investigation.
Appearing before the committee on Wednesday, Ms. Thomas was critical of the media obtaining classified information and putting it out in the open. She repeated that the interference existed and that the Prime Minister was aware of it, but that it was not significant enough for Canadians to be aware of it.
But for the Bloc leader, Yves-François Blanchet, “as soon as there is a riding which is demonstrably or demonstrated the object of a change or a probable alteration of the result, it is already serious”.
Ms. Thomas, however, stressed that information compiled by the Intelligence Service is not necessarily proof of proven facts. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was informed of the allegations of interference, but decided not to initiate a criminal investigation.