Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s “looking forward” to answering questions about foreign interference at a federal inquiry into the issue next week.
Trudeau was not, however, willing to answer those questions at a press conference on Friday. Asked directly about an alleged $250,000 fund from the Chinese government which may have been earmarked to interfere in recent federal elections, Trudeau talked about how seriously he says his government is taking the issue generally.
“The question of foreign interference is one that is extremely important,” Trudeau said in Calgary on Friday.
“That’s why as a government we put in place significant measures to ensure that, for example, our elections continue to be free and fair despite what we have known for years is ongoing attempts at interference by various foreign actors.”
Asked a follow-up about Canadian intelligence documents that suggested irregularities in former Liberal MP Han Dong’s 2019 nomination, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese consulate in Toronto, Trudeau declined to answer.
“I look forward to taking all sorts of questions at the commission next week,” Trudeau said.
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CSIS director David Vigneault said Thursday that his agency had intelligence ahead of the 2019 federal election that the government of China attempted to funnel — through a network of “threat actors” — approximately $250,000, possibly to interfere in Canadian elections.
Global News first reported on these allegations in 2022, citing national security sources.
The CSIS summary says, “11 political candidates and 13 political staff members were assessed to be either implicated in or impacted by this group of threat actors.”
The intelligence agency uses the term “threat actors” in the document to refer to officials associated with the government in Beijing working “covertly to advance China’s interest through Canadian democratic institutions.”
The information released to the inquiry by CSIS said seven candidates from the Liberal Party of Canada and four candidates from the Conservative Party of Canada were allegedly implicated as being part of the network.
“Some of these threat actors received financial support from the People’s Republic of China. For example, there likely were at least two transfer of funds approximating $250,000 from PRC officials in Canada, possibly for (foreign interference)-related purposes, though most likely not in an attempt to covertly fund the 11 candidates,” the CSIS document reads.
CSIS says the money was believed to be transferred through “an influential community leader, to the staff member of a 2019 federal election candidate and then to an Ontario MPP.”
Vigneault put the information forward with the caveat that it’s an intelligence summary and not necessarily a collection of facts, adding it may require further investigation and context.
He said his words have been “carefully chosen to make sure that they are providing [the] commissioner and Canadians the most accurate possible depiction of what we know while protecting classified information.”
The judge heading the inquiry, Marie-Josee Hogue, also has access to all the secret intelligence that could not be released to the public. She will weigh all of the information while preparing her first report, which is due on May 3.
— With files from Global’s David Akin and Touria Izri.
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