PM to testify in front of commission on Wednesday afternoon
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What did Justin Trudeau know about foreign interference and when did he know it? Those will be the two big questions when the prime minister takes the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon in front of the Foreign Interference Commission.
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This will be Trudeau’s second appearance in a year at a public inquiry. On top of his appearance as a witness in the WE Charity scandal hearings and his many run-ins with the ethics commissioner, that makes Trudeau a frequent flier in hearings into his government’s alleged misdeeds.
Much of what is being discussed at this inquiry is talked about in circles. Documents presented to the witnesses in the public forum of the inquiry are heavily redacted. At times, even when asked about information that is in the public domain, witnesses will say they must be careful of what is said on the matter while alluding to details hidden from the public.
What we do know is that Trudeau was briefed by a senior Liberal party official on concerns about the nomination of Han Dong in Toronto’s Don Valley North riding at the end of September 2019. (Dong testified at the inquiry that he has not seen any evidence of interference by the PRC.) Jeremy Broadhurst told the inquiry that he took the information to Trudeau, they discussed it and decided there wasn’t enough information to take action.
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By what has been released so far, there wasn’t even a curiosity on the part of Trudeau to obtain more information from security officials after the event.
The 2019 election was the first to feature a back-and-forth relationship between political parties, security officials and senior government bureaucrats. In the 2021 election, Rob Stewart, then the deputy minister for public safety, noted that there was a spike in foreign interference, specifically from China.
“As it pertains to China, we were seeing a steady increase in the amount of activity that was going on,” Stewart told the inquiry.
Despite the steady uptick, senior bureaucrats believed they had everything under control. Over the last several days, testimony seemed to suggest that despite an increase in foreign interference, things were running just fine.
Janice Charette, who served as the clerk of the Privy Council, told the inquiry she was part of a briefing during the 2021 campaign that involved CSIS and Privy Council Office staff and cleared representatives of the Liberal party. While not disclosing what was revealed to the Liberals, it was clearly serious enough, but Charette didn’t brief Trudeau on it or discuss the matter until nearly 18 months later.
“I did not brief the prime minister on this, either during the election or after the election, and I believe the first briefing of the prime minister on this took place not until 2023,” Charette said.
The lack of curiosity on behalf of Trudeau and the senior bureaucrats he put in charge of managing foreign interference in our elections is shocking.
How does Trudeau hear about allegations of China attempting to meddle in a Liberal nomination, of buses with foreign students being sent to vote, and not look into it more? How does Charette sit in on that meeting that was important enough to raise it with the Liberals and then not discuss it with the PM until foreign inference allegations are dominating the headlines?
Were they choosing to look away so as not to upset a system that seems to have benefitted some Liberals?
“Until foreign interference is viewed as an existential threat to Canadian democracy and governments forcefully and actively respond, these threats will persist,” said a PMO briefing from February 2023 submitted to the inquiry as evidence.
Right now, we don’t have anyone in office who is taking the threat seriously, we have someone in office who may be benefitting from it.
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LILLEY: What did Trudeau know about foreign interference and when did he know it?
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10.04.2024
PM to testify in front of commission on Wednesday afternoon
You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.
What did Justin Trudeau know about foreign interference and when did he know it? Those will be the two big questions when the prime minister takes the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon in front of the Foreign Interference Commission.
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Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
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This will be Trudeau’s second appearance in a year at a public inquiry. On top of his appearance as a witness in the WE Charity scandal hearings and his many run-ins with the ethics commissioner, that makes Trudeau a frequent flier in hearings into his government’s alleged misdeeds.
Much of what is being discussed at this inquiry is talked about in circles. Documents presented to the witnesses in the public forum of the inquiry are heavily redacted. At times, even when asked about information that is in the public domain, witnesses will say........
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