(Quebec) There has been no foreign interference in Quebec’s elections in 2022, Prime Minister François Legault suggested in Quebec on Thursday.
Posted at 6:57pm
Patrice Bergeron The Canadian Press
Élections Québec also notes that it has not noticed anything that amounts to foreign intervention in the election campaign.
Mr. Legault’s statement comes in the context of shocking revelations in Ottawa about possible Chinese interference in the last two federal election campaigns.
The prime minister also said he and members of his cabinet had gotten rid of TikTok, a Chinese app currently at the center of a data-gathering controversy.
When asked during a press crowd if he had been reassured that there had been no foreign interference during the last election campaign, Mr Legault was succinct.
“I have no indication that there was any interference,” he replied at the end of a lengthy afternoon interview with Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand at City Hall.
However, he did not say where he got his information from or whether his government had carried out checks.
Elections Quebec wants to be reassuring
“Nothing leads us to believe that there was illegal foreign political funding in the last provincial election,” said Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet, spokeswoman for Élections Québec.
It is this independent organization that guarantees the integrity, transparency and reliability of Québec’s electoral process.
However, in an interview with The Canadian Press in the evening, she could not specify whether complaints had been made about a possible threat or interference from a foreign power.
However, there has been no breach of Elections Quebec’s computer systems, nor a concerted effort by a foreign state to discredit and undermine Quebec’s electoral process, she said.
“Based on the information currently available, there is nothing to indicate that there was a structured disinformation campaign about the course of the elections from abroad in the last election. »
In Ottawa, the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections is reviewing a total of 158 complaints received about “10 situations” related to the 2019 general election and 16 complaints about “13 situations” related to those of 2021, as we were able to learn on Thursday.
“It’s extremely worrying,” says Duhaime
“I was stunned to learn (the revelations in Ottawa), it is extremely disturbing,” said Quebec Conservative Party leader Éric Duhaime at a press conference Thursday morning in Quebec.
However, he added that he had not heard of any intervention by the Chinese government in last fall’s Quebec elections.
“I have no evidence that the Chinese authorities in Quebec were interested in our elections. »
It was a series of reports by Global TV and The Globe and Mail that exposed attempts by communist China during the last two election campaigns.
These allegations come from anonymous Canadian security agency sources. They suggest that the Chinese power had an interest in re-electing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals at the expense of the Conservative Party. Therefore, to achieve its goals, Beijing would have mobilized the Chinese consulates to encourage the Chinese-Canadian communities to go and vote for the Liberal Party.
In recent months, pressure has mounted on Justin Trudeau’s administration to provide more information on how Ottawa is responding to threats of foreign interference.