Under pressure from all sides to clarify allegations of attempted Chinese interference in the last two federal elections, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will ask MPs and senators on the national security committee to look into the matter.
Two Liberal sources, who requested anonymity since they were not authorized to speak on this issue publicly, confirmed the information to The Canadian Press.
Mr. Trudeau is expected to make the announcement Monday during a press briefing.
The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is made up of MPs and Senators who all hold Top Secret security clearances and are all permanently bound to secrecy.
Calls have been mounting for weeks for his government to instead launch a public and independent inquiry into the matter.
Former advisers to the Prime Minister, such as Gerald Butts, have told the Globe and Mail that it was necessary. A former Chief Electoral Officer did the same.
Morris Rosenberg, the former senior civil servant who produced an assessment report on the protocol designed to inform Canadians in the event of threats in the 2021 federal election, also stated on CTV that the option of a commission of inquiry should, in his view, be on the table.
Last week, all the main opposition parties united to pass a motion in committee calling for such an independent exercise. The Liberals sitting on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs opposed the NDP motion, but the wording was approved anyway with the support of the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois.
Group shot of the oppositions
The issue took up more than half of Monday’s question period. Opposition parties fired a gunshot at the Trudeau government.
The leader of the official opposition, Pierre Poilievre, launched the ball from the first moments of the game, on this day when the House of Commons resumed work.
“Our intelligence services informed the Prime Minister that this government interfered in two elections to support the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing. Will he finally allow an independent public inquiry so that Canadians know the truth? he launched.
The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, rose to give the reply. “It won’t surprise you that I disagree with the Leader of the Opposition when he falsely claims that the government has done nothing. We acted as soon as we formed the government to counter foreign interference in our elections,” he retorted.
For months, the Liberals have been repeating that a panel of experts concluded that the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 elections was preserved despite attempts at foreign interference. This committee was set up by the government of Justin Trudeau.
“We were the only government to do that. When my friend the Leader of the Opposition was minister responsible for democratic institutions, he did nothing when the intelligence agencies raised this issue more than 10 years ago,” argued Mr. LeBlanc.
Another commission of inquiry?
A series of reports from the Global network and the daily The Globe and Mail detailed Chinese-orchestrated attempts at interference in the past two federal election campaigns.
These allegations, cited in anonymous leaks to the media from sources in Canadian security agencies, suggest that Beijing wanted to secure the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – leading a minority government – at the expense of the conservatives. Reports indicate that to do so, consulates have been pressured to mobilize members of the Chinese-Canadian community.
“As soon as the integrity of the democratic process is threatened, it is the responsibility of all of us in this House to come to its defence. It is the public’s confidence in our democratic system that is at stake here. It goes well beyond the partisan question, ”hammered Monday the Bloc parliamentary leader, Alain Therrien.
The deputy leader of the New Democratic Party, Alexandre Boulerice, added that “few things are as crucial as the integrity of the electoral process and confidence in the institutions”.
“There are serious allegations of interference and it is the responsibility of this Prime Minister to launch a public inquiry to shed light. People deserve transparency,” he said.
So far, the Prime Minister has not specifically said “no” to a commission of inquiry, but he has repeatedly pointed out that the review by a parliamentary committee is already taking place in public.
Experts heard before this committee affirmed that a public and independent inquiry would come up against the same limits as the current parliamentary study. This is particularly the case of the intelligence adviser at the Privy Council Office, Jody Thomas, who also underlined the problem.
“We cannot speak in a public forum about information that relates to national security,” she argued. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault made similar comments.
With information from Mia Rabson