China’s alleged interference in federal elections does not seem to have affected the Quebec electoral system. Neither Élections Québec nor the Sûreté du Québec found any evidence that foreign countries were able to interfere in any past general election campaign.
In Ottawa, Justin Trudeau’s federal government had to answer a series of questions from opposition parties this week after reports emerged that China was working to get the Liberal Party of Canada re-elected in September 2021. of a public inquiry is still not excluded.
However, if we trust the words of the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, the scope of foreign interference stops at the borders of the federal level. “We do not believe that there was a structured disinformation campaign targeting the Quebec electoral process and coming from abroad during the last provincial elections. We also do not believe that there was illegal political funding from abroad,” said Élections Québec spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud Drolet.
The independent organization also maintains that it has not been the target of any computer intrusion.
Could foreign countries have worked to elect certain governments before the October 2022 election? “No”, was content to answer the Sûreté du Québec in a telephone exchange with The duty.
“In light of the information we have at this time, we do not believe that there was a structured disinformation campaign. […] from abroad in previous provincial elections,” added Elections Quebec when asked about it.
These remarks join those of the Prime Minister François Legault, who had affirmed Thursday in a press scrum not to have “indications according to which there would have been interference”.
Allegations
In Ottawa, the Global television network and the Toronto daily The Globe and Mail reported in recent months that China allegedly interfered in Canadian elections in both 2019 and 2021. Their reports, which rely on unnamed sources within federal security agencies, suggest that Chinese consulates worked in the last two elections to get the Chinese-Canadian communities to support the Liberal Party, to the detriment of the Conservative Party.
On Thursday, the parliamentary committee studying allegations of foreign interference in federal elections overwhelmingly backed a non-binding motion calling for a public inquiry “with full powers to call government and political party witnesses.” Liberal parliamentarians opposed it, but Prime Minister Trudeau is not closing the door. He said on Thursday that he was “always open to doing more.”
The office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections is looking into a total of 158 complaints about 10 situations related to the 2019 election and 16 complaints about 13 situations related to the 2021 election.
With The Canadian Press