Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared 30 minutes before a public inquiry into foreign interference began, marking his first dramatic moment since 2019. This dramatic moment would resonate three and a half years later when Canadian journalists began reporting on a series of intelligence leaks.
During the 2019 election, security officials briefed Liberal party leaders on “issues of concern” related to the Liberal nomination contest in the Toronto Riding of Don Valley North. Those concerns were relayed to the party’s campaign director, Jeremy Broadhurst, who went to the government terminal at the Ottawa airport on a Sunday in late September to meet with Prime Minister Trudeau, who had returned from a week-long campaign trip. Prime Minister Trudeau said Wednesday. .
The Prime Minister and Mr Broadhurst met there for 20 to 30 minutes. Broadhurst said Chinese authorities may be planning to interfere in candidate races, specifically by busing students and Chinese Canadians to polling stations to attract candidates. He explained that intelligence officials were concerned that Mr. Handong would be allowed to vote. He later became Liberal MP for Don Valley North.
It was not clear from Prime Minister Trudeau’s comments Wednesday whether the plan was actually implemented. The Liberal Party’s internal processes raised no red flags regarding the vote. And in Trudeau’s view, the mere presence of a bus in a nomination contest is not evidence of anything suspicious (apparently it’s rather common).
In February 2023, it was reported that CSIS officials “urged” the Liberals to rescind Dong’s nomination, but Trudeau and Broadhurst have now said under oath that no recommendations of any kind were made. I told the meeting. Prime Minister Trudeau also testified that he was to keep what he and Broadhurst heard confidential.
So what should I do?
Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Broadhurst both concluded that there were insufficient grounds to overturn Don’s nomination.
“It’s a pretty high threshold to overturn a democratic event like an official party nomination,” Trudeau told the inquiry. “In this case, we did not believe there was sufficient or sufficiently reliable information to justify this very important step.”
It’s no mistake that there are those who question Prime Minister Trudeau’s decisions or think that more should have been done to get to the bottom of what may or may not have happened in the northern Don Valley. do not have.
But that half-hour at the Ottawa airport appears to embody something important, both about the issue of foreign interference and the political drama that has unfolded since then. And it’s perhaps a shame that Trudeau’s testimony only took place on Wednesday.
incompletely and closely held
The biggest issue at hand remains the indisputable (and now widely known) fact that a hostile foreign state is attempting to covertly interfere with Canada’s democratic process. How much of a problem it is may be debated, but the threat, both real and perceived, is now clear.
But this is incomplete and closely guarded information, and it is at the heart of many of the issues, controversies, and headlines that have recently defined the conversation about foreign interference.
It has been said repeatedly that what is commonly called “intelligence” is not “evidence.” However, it may be more accurate to say that intelligence is not necessarily a proven fact.
In the case of Don Valley North, that appears to put Trudeau in the position of having to decide whether to remove a candidate based on unsubstantiated allegations. Perhaps he should have. However, it may at least be agreed that this decision is not a complete one.
In February 2023, questions about Mr. Dong and his nomination exploded into public view through a leak from an anonymous security official. But it will be another 14 months before Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Broadhurst explain what they know.
In the 2021 election, the Conservative Party was concerned that misinformation about the party and its position on China was being spread on social media. Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole said at the time that public servants responsible for monitoring foreign interference should have issued a public warning about the misinformation. But officials told the inquiry there was not enough information to conclude that the messages on social media were coordinated or promoted by a foreign country.
At least this spring’s hearings provided some belated clarity on these considerations, further highlighting how difficult it is to navigate a world where so much is unproven.
These hearings certainly would not have taken place if not for the media leaks in 2022 and 2023 that facilitated many important allegations. Some of these claims are currently being directly challenged or certified.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, testifying at the foreign interference inquiry, said it is important that Canadians have faith in their country’s democratic institutions and that information shows the 2019 and 2021 elections were not compromised. He claimed that
But the government has repeatedly said it was unable to adequately respond to the breach in the interest of national security, leaving many things unaddressed for months. An aide to the Prime Minister testified this week that in response to a media report, he asked if some of the government’s information could be declassified and made public. Apparently it was said to be impossible.
Beyond what the public knows, questions remain about how well information flows within the government, between security services and political parties. It appears that at least some of the sensational claims reported in the media did not reach the prime minister until after the leak occurred.
Part of the confusion and intrigue over the past year and a half can be attributed to the relative novelty of the issue: what is now known as “foreign interference.” No matter how long nations have been trying to interfere in each other’s elections, it wasn’t until the 2016 U.S. presidential election that democracies fully confronted the extent of the threat posed by non-democratic regimes. .
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was at pains Wednesday to review everything his government has done to prepare for the problem, how to set up an independent body that could deal with interference during elections, and the established protocols and processes. This research may indicate that even after all this process, difficult calls still get made, and that some parties second-guess those calls.
But if the past year and a half has been a stress test for Canada’s political system, that’s not to say it passed with flying colors.
Indeed, the most important conclusion may be that doubts and doubts about democratic processes are exacerbated by a lack of clarity and information. Governments may not want to call for a public inquiry every time someone leaks something to a reporter, but they can increase transparency and openness more quickly and be an important part of the solution to foreign interference. There is sex.
