OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau has been bombarded all week with questions about China’s alleged meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections trying to understand. The Journal examines what we know and what we don’t know.
• Also read: Ottawa called the Chinese ambassador through Chinese police stations in Canada
• Also read: Justin Trudeau is being prosecuted by the opposition over Chinese interference
What are we talking about ?
At least 11 candidates, both conservative and liberal, are said to have received funding from Beijing in the 2019 election that harms politicians perceived as anti-interest. Canadian Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS) reportedly informed Justin Trudeau back in January. This was announced by Global News on November 7 as the prime minister was preparing to leave for Asia, where he will attend a series of summits.
Almost a month after this report, which continues to stir the House of Commons, many questions remain unanswered:
√ Was there any Chinese interference in the Canadian election process three years ago, yes or no? How did she manifest? What was the impact?
√ Who are the eleven funded applicants? Were they elected? Will they show up?
What does Trudeau know?
The prime minister says he is regularly briefed on “issues that may affect our institutions and the integrity of our elections” but has not received any information related to candidate funding in the 2019 or 2021 elections.
He asserts that an independent group charged with investigating foreign interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections “can confirm that the integrity of the elections was not understood.” “There was nothing that would have influenced the elections,” he emphasizes.
“Canada and its allies are regularly attacked by foreign states like China, including during elections,” he said. That’s why he raised the question of interference with Chinese President Xi Jing Ping at the G20 summit in Bali in mid-November.
The Commons committee investigating the case received reports prepared for the Prime Minister in January, but these have been redacted in full.
What does CSIS say?
In February 2021, CSIS chief David Vigneault, in a rare public appearance, told the Center for International Governance Innovation: “Foreign states have engaged in efforts against politicians, political parties and the electoral process in order to influence decisions made in Canada, to influence public opinion and ultimately undermining its democratic processes. »
File Photo, PC
CSIS Director David Vigneault with Michelle Tessier, CSIS Deputy Operations Director, and Marie-Hélène Chayer, Director General of the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Center
Mr Vigneault then urged the government to “strengthen” its defenses against the escalation of “hostile” activity on the part of China. “Our electoral system has proven resilient, but we must work hard to keep it that way,” he said.
What does the RCMP do?
“The RCMP can confirm that it is currently conducting investigations into interference activities by foreign actors,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki wrote to parliamentarians on Tuesday.
Photo files, RCMP
Brenda Lucki, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“In connection with the 2019 federal election, the RCMP did not conduct a criminal investigation into activities targeting those elections, as there was no justification for such investigations at the time,” she explains, without saying why its services have since changed course to have.
The commissioner cautions that these national security inquiries are among the “most sensitive the RCMP is currently conducting” and that to say more would risk compromising them.
The problem, believes curator Pierre Paul Hus, is that “in the end we never have the result of these investigations”. “The least we could do is inform the population about the results,” he emphasizes.