Issued on: 07/03/2023 - 02:31
File photo: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a plenary session of the European Parliament at the EU headquarters in Brussels on March 23, 2022. © John Thys, AFP
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he will appoint a
special investigator to decide whether there should be a public inquiry into
reports of Chinese interference in Canada's elections.
Trudeau also is having a Parliament national security
committee examine classified information on the matter.
The Globe and Mail, citing unidentified intelligence
sources, reported last month that China preferred
to see Trudeau's Liberals re-elected in the 2021 election and worked to defeat
Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.
Opposition parties have been demanding a full public
inquiry.
Trudeau declined to do that now but said he would name an
independent special rapporteur who will decide if a public inquiry is needed.
Trudeau said he will abide by the recommendation.
“We will ask the independent special rapporteur, as one of
the first tasks of their mandate, to provide the government with a
recommendation as to what the appropriate next step be — whether it be an
inquiry, an investigation or a judicial review — and what the scope of that
work may be,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said that “all political leaders agree that the
election outcomes in 2019, and in 2021, were not impacted by foreign
interference. But even if it didn’t change the results of our elections,
any interference attempt, by any foreign actor, is troubling and serious.”
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre earlier
Monday criticized the idea of a Parliament committee being involved.
He said that would result only in officials presenting
opposition lawmakers with “some information and then swear them to secrecy so
they could never speak about it again. So effectively, that would be a trick to
try and prevent anyone debating the subject.”
A panel of civil servants recently issued a report that
concluded there were foreign attempts to interfere, but none affected the
outcome of the election.
“We have long known, as an independent report confirmed
again last week, that the Chinese government, and other regimes like Iran and
Russia, have attempted to interfere not just in our democracy, but in our
country in general, whether it’s our institutions, our businesses, our research
facilities, or in the daily lives of our citizens,” Trudeau said.
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20230307-canada-s-trudeau-orders-new-probe-into-alleged-china-interference-in-elections
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