Conservative MP Erin O’Toole has reportedly been told by the federal agency responsible for monitoring espionage activities that he was the target of interference from China during his time as party leader.
When he rose to raise a question of privilege in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr. O’Toole said that members of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) met with him to present certain measures taken by Beijing aimed at discrediting it and spreading false news about its policies.
The Chinese Communist Party has allegedly funded the creation of disinformation, the use of groups on the WeChat platform to amplify this fake news, as well as a campaign targeting certain voters in the 2021 general election, he told the Commons. .
According to Mr. O’Toole, these threats against him and certain members of his caucus were not reported to him by the government or federal security agencies at the time they occurred.
The task force set up by the government to investigate possible interference in the 2021 election didn’t tell him either, he said.
The Conservative MP argued that the Liberal government’s inaction deprived him of his privilege as a parliamentarian and leader of the opposition.
“This meeting with CSIS confirmed for me what I had suspected for quite a long time: my caucus and I were the targets of a sophisticated campaign of disinformation and voter suppression orchestrated by the People’s Republic of China before and during the 2021 election campaign”, hammered Mr. O’Toole in the House.
On Monday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan also said CSIS told her last week that she had been targeted by Beijing before the 2019 election. defending human rights in Hong Kong and the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.
Also, the federal government’s special rapporteur on foreign interference, David Johnston, pointed out in his preliminary report presented last week that intelligence suggests that Beijing has indeed sought information on Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives. .
However, Mr Johnston’s report contained little evidence to support Mr O’Toole’s claim that specific candidates were defeated in the 2021 election due to foreign interference.
The former governor general pointed out that it was difficult to tell whether the disinformation campaigns against the Conservative candidates were linked to a state-sponsored source, and that it was legitimate to think that some Chinese Canadians disagreed with the Conservative position on China.
In this case, it would not be foreign interference, but the “democratic process”, according to the report.
Under a federal protocol, federal security agencies must make a public announcement if a group of senior officials determines that an incident — or series of incidents — threatens Canada’s ability to hold free and fair elections.
No such announcement was made in 2021 or the 2019 election. In both polls, the Liberals were returned to government with minority mandates, while the Conservatives were given the role of official opposition by citizens.