Trudeau denies seeing evidence of foreign interference saying he doesn't read briefings but his chief of staff said he reads them all
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Facing memo after memo, briefing note after briefing note, Justin Trudeau told the Foreign Interference Commission time and again that he didn’t read the documents. Instead, Trudeau told the commission that he preferred to receive briefings, including on national security and foreign interference, orally.
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“The best way to convey information to me is to receive a direct briefing from my national security adviser and intelligence adviser,” Trudeau told the commission.
“The only way to guarantee to make sure that I receive the necessary information is to give me an in-person briefing or over a secure line, if necessary.”
That answer allowed Trudeau to brush away any knowledge of briefing documents by saying that he never saw them and that those briefing him verbally never raised these very key issues. It seems highly implausible that all of Trudeau’s top advisers would brief him on a key national security or foreign interference event and not tell him the key parts of those briefings, but that is what he wants you to believe.
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As for Trudeau not reading the documents, that’s not what his Chief of Staff Katie Telford said when testifying about foreign interference before the Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 14, 2023.
“Everything the prime minister receives, he spends a lot of time with and most definitely reads. I can confirm that if they are documents that he received, he absolutely read them,” Telford told the committee.
She actually made that claim, that Trudeau reads all his briefings, more than once. Now, on the stand, Trudeau wants us to believe he didn’t read key documents so he can’t possibly remember details or comment on issues that were not raised with him.
There were two other main issues with Trudeau’s testimony on Wednesday: His lack of curiosity in following up once he was briefed and his claim that he couldn’t act because CSIS didn’t make recommendations.
Trudeau was briefed regarding concerns CSIS raised about Han Dong’s nomination on Sept. 30, 2019, just two days after his staff were informed. This briefing, in person at the Ottawa airport, took place just before he boarded a plane for the final three weeks of the election campaign.
Apparently the answer from the Trudeau government is either I wasn't briefed, I wasn't given that level of detail, I can't recall.
But they knew China was interfering, they just didn't ask questions.
Asked if he followed up on the allegations, Trudeau said he believes the party may have, but beyond that, suggested that Elections Canada was the responsible body. CSIS brought him information about the Chinese government interfering in the nomination of a Liberal candidate who won the election, and Trudeau didn’t bother ordering any further investigation.
He also tried to imply that CSIS didn’t offer any recommendations, so there was no need to act, and yet he has previously, and defiantly, said that it is up to political parties and not security agencies to decide who can run in a democracy.
Trudeau spent a good part of his testimony extolling the virtues of his government and how they had created the tools, the processes, the panels to root out foreign interference. The testimony over the past two weeks shows that often what Trudeau set up failed to flag foreign interference and when it was reported to him, he ignored it.
Now, we’ve seen the prime minister appear on the stand and be evasive with answers, refusing to answer — mostly because he claimed he never read the documents, at other times because he claimed it would breach national security.
During his appearance Wednesday, Trudeau was far less than forthcoming. That’s something that will evade low information voters who don’t pay attention, act as proof for his cult-like TruAnon followers that he did nothing wrong, and frustrate the rest of us.
There was foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 election, and Trudeau claims it didn’t impact the outcome. He did his best to convince the inquiry of that with his testimony.
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