Global Courant 2023-05-31 00:26:23
Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole says he was told by the Canadian intelligence agency that he had been a constant target of a Chinese government campaign of misinformation and “voter suppression” during the last federal election campaign.
Following a question of privileges in the House of Commons on Tuesday, O’Toole said he received a briefing from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on Friday.
The Ontario MP said he had been told Beijing had targeted him for “years”.
“The CSIS briefing confirmed to me what I had suspected for some time. That my parliamentary caucus and myself were the target of a sophisticated disinformation and voter suppression campaign orchestrated by the People’s Republic of China,” O’Toole told the House.
O’Toole said Beijing’s campaign spread misinformation and used social media — specifically China’s messaging app WeChat — to amplify that misinformation.
The former Conservative leader criticized the government for not informing him or his party about these issues at the time, something he called a violation of his parliamentary privilege.
“They are deliberately blind to attacks on our parliamentary democracy,” said O’Toole.
O’Toole also criticized the federal task force created to help ensure the integrity of the 2021 election. A report was published in February assessing the task force’s work.
While the report said interference had no impact on the outcome of the 2021 vote, it advised the government to lower the threshold for when the task force can alert the public to potential attempts at interference.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan is joined by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh as she speaks to reporters about her briefing with CSIS, where they confirmed she was a target of foreign interference, in the House of Commons Foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Monday . May 29, 2023. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
O’Toole – who will leave federal politics once the House rises next month – said he will likely remain a Beijing target once he steps down.
On Monday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan said she received a similar briefing from CSIS last week.
Kwan told reporters Monday that CSIS said it is an “evergreen” target for Beijing. Both O’Toole and Kwan said the Chinese government chose them because of their outspoken support for democracy in Hong Kong and for religious and cultural minorities in China.
“I will continue this fight to get this message to the House of Commons,” Kwan said on Monday.
House debates a motion calling for Johnston to resign
David Johnston, the federal government’s special rapporteur on foreign interference, said in his recent interim report that intelligence shows Beijing was seeking information on Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives.
Government House leader Mark Holland said on Tuesday that federal Liberals remain confident in Johnston’s ability to investigate foreign interference in Canadian elections.
But the Netherlands would not confirm whether the government could fire Johnston if an NDP motion calling for his impeachment is passed in the House of Commons this week.
The House debated a motion by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on Tuesday calling on the government to remove Johnston as special rapporteur and launch a public inquiry.
Singh said he does not want to personally attack Johnston but fears that his personal ties to the prime minister undermine his work as special rapporteur.
Motions from opposition parties are not binding and the government already ignored an earlier NDP motion calling for a public inquiry passed in March.
That motion came just a week after Liberals appointed Johnston to investigate allegations that the Chinese government attempted to interfere in the last two federal elections.
David Johnston, independent special rapporteur on foreign interference, will present his first report in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. The House of Commons is debating a motion calling for Johnston to resign. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Conservative party leader Pierre Poilièvre on Tuesday reiterated his calls for a public inquiry and dismissed Johnston’s role as a “fake job”.
“We have to take back control of our democracy from foreign troops. We have to give Canadians back control of their lives,” he said.
Poilièvre, who succeeded O’Toole as permanent party leader after the last election, said he would launch a public inquiry if he became prime minister.
Trudeau has offered top security clearances to party leaders to allow them to review the information that informed Johnston’s report.
Poilièvre, who has questioned Johnston’s impartiality by calling him a “ski buddy” and “house neighbor” of the Trudeau family, declined the offer. Poilièvre has said he does not want to be “silenced” by having to limit the information he can share publicly.
“The Prime Minister’s plan is that he wants to mark secret things that would otherwise be publicly disputable, but put things that would fall under a state secret in a gray area and then put them in front of me to prevent me from speaking publicly. .” said Poilièvre.
Singh said he will continue to push for a public enquiry, but will not end his trust and supply deal with the minority Liberal government or call an election.
“I don’t see how logical it is, if the goal is to protect our democracy, to provoke elections when we are concerned about foreign interference,” he said.
