Poilievre’s leadership under darkening cloud

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/12/2024 (487 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If Pierre Poilievre is India’s man in Ottawa, he needs to come clean and say so. If he isn’t, he must deliver a clear response to the growing body of evidence suggesting he has a far closer relationship with the south Asian country than many Canadians are aware of.

Yesterday morning, Canadians awoke to a Radio-Canada report that the Indian government intervened in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest by attempting to derail the campaign of Poilievre’s closest opponent for the job, Brampton, Ont., mayor Patrick Brown.

According to the report, Radio-Canada reporters spoke to five people who were actively involved in Brown’s leadership campaign. Those sources cited various examples of pressure that they allege was exerted by Indian consular agents in Canada in order to harm the viability of Brown’s candidacy.

Some sources, who were not named in the report because they fear for their safety, said that Brown campaign workers were instructed by Indian government representatives to stop supporting Brown, to not sell Conservative Party memberships for Brown, and to not invite him to certain events.

Sources also told Radio-Canada that India did not want a candidate in the Conservative leadership race who was close to the Sikh community. In an earlier campaign video, Brown had said that “I have been tremendously disappointed with what’s happened in India,” accusing the country of “discrimination” against Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities.

The report also reveals that, according to confidential sources, the national co-chair of Brown’s leadership campaign, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, was allegedly pressured to withdraw her support for Brown in the leadership race. The report says she denies the allegation, quoting her as saying “I left Mr. Brown’s campaign completely of my own volition.”

In response to the Radio-Canada report, Poilievre’s office claims it has “no knowledge” of any attempts by Indian government representatives to undermine Brown’s campaign. The Conservative Party of Canada says it “was not then nor today aware” of Indian foreign interference meant to compromise Brown’s campaign.

Those are surprising responses, given that yesterday’s Radio-Canada report echoes findings found in the “Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada’s Democratic Process and Institutions,” which was released by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians in June of this year.

Paragraph 72 of that report reveals that “Foreign actors also targeted party leadership campaigns.” The remaining three sentences of the paragraph are redacted in order “to remove injurious or privileged information,” but the report’s description of those deleted sentences says that “The sentences described two specific instances where PRC officials allegedly interfered in the leadership races of the Conservative Party of Canada.” (“PRC” is an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.)

The next paragraph in the report, paragraph 73, is redacted in its entirety in order to once again “remove injurious or privileged information,” but the report says this about the deleted paragraph: “The paragraph described India’s alleged interference in a Conservative Party of Canada leadership race.”

Poilievre is the only party leader who refuses to obtain the necessary national security clearance in order to access classified documents on foreign governments’ political interference activities in Canada. Given the allegations suggesting his leadership campaign received help from one or more foreign nations, Canadians can rightly wonder if he’s avoiding that clearance because he knows or suspects there is information in the unredacted report and CSIS-gathered intelligence that undermines the legitimacy of his position as Conservative Party leader.

After all, he can’t continue to claim he knows nothing about India’s alleged support of his leadership campaign if he reads about it in the National Security and Intelligence Committee report and sees the relevant intelligence gathered by CSIS.

Given the strong likelihood that Poilievre could be Canada’s next prime minister, the concern is far from trivial. The Canadian government has alleged that Indian government officials were involved in murders on Canadian soil, something the Indian government vehemently denies. Would Poilievre pursue those serious allegations, or retreat from them?

If the Indian government asks him for information regarding alleged Sikh separatists living in Canada, would he disclose that information? If he owes his job to the Indian government, how could he refuse?

There is a growing, darkening cloud over Poilievre’s leadership. The best way to clear that cloud is for him to obtain his security clearance, read the unredacted report and intelligence, and then be honest with Canadians about what happened.

Until then, he should not be surprised if a growing number of Canadians wonder where his loyalties lie.