‘Political games’ over foreign interference further erode Canadians’ trust: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says members of Parliament who put a political spin on foreign election interference are helping China undermine Canadians’ confidence in their democracy.

His comments come one day after a Liberal MP, Jennifer O’Connell, accused Conservatives at a parliamentary committee studying foreign election interference of “Trump-type tactics to question election results moving forward.” Another Liberal PM had said in November she was “disappointed” following Conservative questions about allegations of attempts by China to interfere.

Trudeau said Wednesday that playing “political games” to get a partisan advantage will undermine people’s trust in their institutions, and will only assist the efforts of countries like Russia and China that attempt to make democracies unstable.

He told reporters that Canadians must have trust in the electoral process, regardless of which political party is in power, and parties must work together on the issue.

Trudeau said he is happy that a House of Commons committee agreed on Tuesday to study possible foreign interference in the 2021 election, and call on cabinet members and national security agencies to testify about it.

A non-partisan panel of top public servants is tasked under a federal protocol with alerting Canadians about foreign interference if it threatened their ability to have a free and fair election, and it did not do so in 2019 or 2021.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press with an access-to-information request say that “considerable judgment” would go into deciding whether or not an event or series of events met the “threshold” for such an announcement.

Trudeau’s comments follow months of exclusive reporting by Global News into allegations of attempted Chinese interference, starting with a Nov. 7, 2022, report that Canadian intelligence officials had warned Trudeau that China has allegedly been targeting Canada with a vast campaign of foreign interference, including through the funding of a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election, according to Global News sources.

On Dec. 21, 2022, Global News reported that an unredacted 2020 national security document alleges that Beijing used an extensive network of community groups to conceal the flow of funds between Chinese officials and Canadian members of an election interference network, all in an effort to advance its own political agenda in the 2019 federal contest.

And on Feb. 8, 2023, Global News reported that national security officials drafted a warning for Trudeau and his office more than a year before the 2019 federal election, alleging that Chinese agents were “assisting Canadian candidates running for political offices,” according to a Privy Council Office document reviewed by Global News.

Trudeau said China is trying to interfere in Canadian democracy, “including our elections,” but said it remains clear Canadians were the ones who decided the outcome of the two recent federal elections.

— With files from Global News reporters Saba Aziz & Sean Boynton