PM should embrace non-partisan inquiry

Opinion

“Amplifying and giving reasons, partisan reasons, to mistrust the outcome of an election, mistrust the experts at Elections Canada, and in our security services, and our top public servants, who are saying that the election integrity held, that’s something that we have seen from elsewhere, is not a good path to go down for society or for democracy.”

— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

This is the wrong response by Canada’s prime minister. And the further he goes down the road of deflection and denialism, the deeper he digs his own political grave.

News broke last week that China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign. According to secret and top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents that were viewed by the Globe and Mail, Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party and worked to defeat Conservative politicians who were considered to be unfriendly to China’s interests.

The Globe’s story last week, which was based on the documents, reported that the Chinese government was using an “orchestrated machine” whose two primary aims were to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned to power in 2021, and that certain Tory candidates were defeated.

This included the use of undeclared cash donations to political campaigns, having business owners hire international Chinese students to volunteer in electoral campaigns, spreading misinformation on social media and asserting through diplomatic channels that the Conservatives were too critical of China.

The documents also apparently show that Beijing did not want the Liberals to win a majority government, because — according to one Chinese diplomat — China “likes it when the parties in Parliament are fighting with each other.”

This is only just the tip of the iceberg. A parliamentary committee, which was already studying foreign interference from China in the 2019 federal election since November, will now expand its study into the 2021 federal election as well. The Canadian Press reported yesterday the committee is set to summon cabinet ministers and national security agencies to testify for a second time.

It was also reported last week that former Ontario MPP Han Dong — now a sitting MP re-elected in 2021 — is one of at least 11 Toronto-area riding candidates who were allegedly supported by Beijing in 2019. Global News reported that CSIS was concerned about the Liberal party’s nomination process, and in late September 2019 — only 48 hours before the federal election nomination deadline, urged Trudeau’s team to rescind Dong’s candidacy.

Obviously, the Trudeau Liberals did not follow CSIS’ advice. And yet, as late as yesterday the prime minister told media that he wants Canadians to “continue to have faith in their institutions” and know that “everyone is taking this seriously.”

It is entirely possible that Trudeau is correct in that Chinese election interference did not ultimately influence the final outcome of either of these elections. But there is no plausible way that Canadians can place their trust in the word of a man and a government that have been caught on several occasions breaching government ethics.

The security of our democratic institutions, including Elections Canada, is too important to leave up to issues of trust. And while we happen to agree that partisanship should not play a role in how the government responds to Chinese meddling in Canadian elections, dismissing valid criticism and concerns from other party leaders out of hand shows weak leadership.

This is particularly troubling at a time when we need our leaders to stand up and show integrity by ensuring the integrity of our electoral system.

A pair of former advisers to Trudeau, along with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, have called for a non-partisan public inquiry into this Chinese state-directed electoral interference — something Trudeau already ruled out last Friday.

While national security concerns would force at least some important testimony to be done away from public scrutiny, there is a need for all parties to address this as the adults they are elected to be, and come together for the greater good of the country.

Even Gerald Butts, an ardent Trudeau supporter and the prime minister’s former principal secretary until he resigned during the SNC-Lavalin affair, told the Globe that he too considers a non-partisan inquiry necessary, in order to look at the broad spectrum of foreign interference — not just China.

“We should be confident in our democratic institutions, but we should guard them aggressively,” he said.

Trudeau would do well to heed the advice of his former adviser, and take the threat from Beijing and other countries far more seriously than he outwardly appears to be doing. By refusing to call for an independent, non-partisan inquiry, Justin Trudeau risks losing what little remains of the public’s trust.

» Matt Goerzen, editor