(Ottawa) “False facts,” “puns,” “diametrically opposed to the truth”: Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre went on verbal acrobatics on Wednesday to avoid accusing Justin Trudeau of lying about Chinese interference banned in the House of Representatives.
Posted 2:49pm Updated 3:34pm
Overshadowed by fresh revelations about what he knew (or didn’t know) about Beijing’s interference in the 2019 and 2021 general elections, the prime minister has been hounded by his Conservative opponent and bloc MP.
After making these veiled allegations, Pierre Poilievre adopted the style of QC who had served former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair reasonably well against Stephen Harper during the Senate spending scandal.
“Yes or no”, “Names please”, he called in vain.
Justin Trudeau wanted to attack twice – in French and in English – by asking his opponent to explain why three of his MPs had met with an elected German right-wing extremist.
Pierre Poilievre completely ignored the volleys.
The prime minister got a taste of the pointed questions he would be asked when he paused at the microphone of parliament reporters ahead of his weekly caucus on Wednesday morning.
Each time, instead of responding, he dodged, taking refuge behind the measures he unveiled Monday night, including the appointment of an “independent special rapporteur” to advise him on the relevance of launching a public inquiry.
But he was asked for specific details on revelations in a new Global News report on Beijing’s interference in the last two federal elections in which the Liberals won minority victories.
As the English-language network reports, the prime minister had been informed of China’s intentions to prioritize candidates. This time, the allegations come from reports from the Privy Council Office and the secretive National Security Committee.
It is on this group of MPs and Senators, the Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence, that Justin Trudeau relies to conduct investigations into matters of foreign interference.
Their report, quoted by Global News, states that “an embassy interlocutor [chinoise] formed a group of community leaders called the “Tea Party” to select candidates who would endorse and eventually publicly endorse her.
It also states that a former Chinese consul briefed Beijing-affiliated companies “on the rules governing political donations” and “urged certain business leaders to donate through Canadian affiliates and acquisitions.”
The copy, which Global News says it viewed, had not been edited.
Opposition parties keep up the pressure
Conservatives, Bloc Québécois and New Democrats continue to insist that the way forward is through a public and independent inquiry. On Monday, as Justin Trudeau unveiled three announcements that did nothing to satisfy opposition parties, he argued that approval would have been the “politically easy” solution.
“If I had announced a public inquiry […]once we get to a point where I have to say, ‘oh no, but we can’t give you these documents and these documents’, the independence of this process, [son] efficiency as well [son] Impact would have been undermined,” he argued.
Meanwhile, discord continues in the Commons committee investigating Chinese interference.
Tired of seeing the opposition return with a request for Katie Telford, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, to appear, the Liberals opted not to appear when committee work was due to resume after Tuesday afternoon’s Question Time .
Their absence meant that the quota for holding the meeting was not met, so it is still officially considered “suspended”. The behavior of the Liberals has been castigated by elected representatives of all parties, who sit on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.