Testimony from Justin Trudeau | “Very unlikely” that Beijing had a political preference

(Ottawa) Justin Trudeau considers it “very unlikely” that the Chinese regime would have had a preference between a Liberal or Conservative government in the 2021 election. Testifying before the Commission on Foreign Interference on Wednesday, the Prime Minister reaffirmed that these are the Canadians alone who determined the outcome of the last election.

China, it was understood in Ottawa, could have a more powerful strike force than Russia in Canada, due to the importance of the Chinese diaspora on Canadian territory. But he was not necessarily given a preference for one or the other of the two major parties, summarized Justin Trudeau before Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, who chairs the proceedings.

“I can certainly say that if representatives [étrangers]on an individual basis, might have expressed a preference, the impression we had, and had consistently, was that the People’s Republic of China would have no… it just seemed very unlikely that the Chinese government in as long as such would have a preference for the election,” he said.

Il a rappelé que le contexte était devenu extrêmement tendu entre les deux pays. Si, au départ, le premier ministre Trudeau caressait l’ambition de conclure un traité de libre-échange avec la Chine, les relations entre Ottawa et Pékin se sont grandement détériorées après l’arrestation arbitraire de Michael Kovrig et de Michael Spavor.

Les relations avec la Chine ont pris un tournant majeur […] This is something that caused a lot of tension in our relationship, because it was a colossal irritant for China that everyone was talking about the fate of the two Michaels.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Drawing on secret reports from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), The Globe and Mail reported last year that China used a sophisticated strategy to ensure the re-election of a minority Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau in the last election and to defeat conservative candidates deemed hostile to the Chinese communist regime.

During his testimony, the Prime Minister argued, as his chief of staff, Katie Telford, had expressed the day before, that any information affecting national security should be received with a dose of skepticism. “It’s not always certain, it’s not always corroborated,” he stressed. We must always take [ce type de] information with a certain awareness that it is to be confirmed. »

In a calm and cautious tone given the sensitive nature of information affecting national security, Justin Trudeau maintained that other measures were however necessary in the face of the actions of authoritarian regimes. “We need to do more, I agree. In 2015, there were few tools to counter foreign interference,” he told Commission prosecutor Shantona Chaudhury.

“The idea of ​​protecting our democracy, particularly with regard to disinformation, was not even on the radar,” he continued, citing a series of measures implemented by his government, including the creation of the Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence and the establishment of the Working Group on Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE).

And it is fundamental that the Canadian population knows that the 2019 and 2021 elections took place in compliance with democratic standards, argued Justin Trudeau: “Despite the attempts of certain states to interfere in the electoral process, these elections took place with integrity. They were decided by Canadians. »

No specific information

Called to the witness stand before him, the Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, declared that he had not received any information detailing in depth the foreign interference activities carried out by China during the 2019 and 2021 elections before the maneuvers attributed to the Beijing regime were the subject of media reports.

As soon as he took office, CSIS offered him a briefing session painting a general picture of the situation, but without going into fine details.

He indicated that the first time he heard about Beijing’s possible interference in the Liberal nomination meeting in the riding of Don Valley North, the one won by Liberal Han Dong, was when of a meeting convened by the Prime Minister’s Office on May 23, 2023.

Ditto in the case of allegations concerning the transfer of $250,000 from an agent working for the communist regime to 11 candidates for federal elections deemed more favorable to Beijing.

Ditto with regard to the disinformation campaign carried out on platforms like WeChat against the Conservative Party and its leader at the time, Erin O’Toole, and conservative candidates who bit the dust, notably Kenny Chiu in a riding in the British Columbia.

“I became aware of these allegations once they were made public following media leaks,” said Mr. LeBlanc. So I didn’t have an in-depth briefing on this. But it’s important that people understand that we are not confirming things that have been reported. »

“The severity threshold must be high”

For her part, the former Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions Karina Gould, now Leader of the Government in the House (currently on maternity leave), also claimed not to have had the right to detailed briefing sessions on the activities of interference carried out by China, Russia or India.

M^me Gould had received the mandate from the Prime Minister to provide the government with a plan to counter foreign interference by 2018. At the time, it was felt that the greatest threat could come from Russia, given the role that Moscow had played in the presidential elections in the United States.

She stated that it was decided to establish a high threshold of severity before alerting Canadians of a form of interference because such a declaration in itself constitutes a form of intervention in the unfolding of a election campaign.

“The severity threshold must be high and we must be certain that the information we use to carry out an intervention is infallible. Because information in itself does not constitute evidence,” she said.

Commission hearings resume Friday with testimony from CSIS Director David Vigneault. Judge Hogue is scheduled to present a preliminary report on May 3.