MP Report: Independent investigation critical for Canadian democracy

By Glen Motz on April 28, 2023.

Media reporting in mid-February revealed Canadian Security Intelligence Service had intercepted Chinese Communist Party official communications, confirming they had actively attempted to interfere in our country’s 2021 federal election to prevent Conservatives from winning.

Top Secret intelligence and national security documents obtained by the Globe and Mail are deeply disturbing and expose extremely serious levels of foreign interference over many years. Trudeau initially denied any knowledge of election interference until it became public that such activity was previously presented to the Prime Minister’s Office by Canada’s national security agencies. It appears he chose to ignore those warnings, as it benefitted the Liberals.

It was already known that the communist regime in Beijing used donations to the Trudeau Foundation to try and influence Justin Trudeau. The April 11 mass resignation of the entire Trudeau Foundation board, as well as the president and CEO, raises even more questions. We need to investigate the Trudeau Foundation. We need to know who got paid and who got privilege and power from the prime minister because of foreign funding provided to the Trudeau Foundation.

Trudeau’s farcical response following weeks of stonewalling and ignoring the severity of the situation was to appoint a longtime family friend and former Trudeau Foundation board member as the ‘very special rapporteur’ to make expert recommendations on combating interference. This does not instill the trust, transparency or independence that Canadians are seeking.

After significant pressure from Conservatives, Trudeau’s chief of staff and top advisor, Katie Telford, appeared before the Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on April 14. She was asked what the Trudeau Liberals knew about Beijing’s foreign interference in Canadian elections and when they knew it. Although Telford has the information that Canadians deserve to know, she chose to limit her responses, citing national security concerns. Given that the Liberals vigorously attempted to block her from even appearing at Committee suggests what she actually knows could be very damaging. To date, Trudeau himself refuses to confirm that no member of his cabinet or his caucus, is part of Beijing’s interference network. His refusal to answer says it all.

Canadians deserve the truth about these allegations of foreign interference in our democracy. Conservatives take foreign interference in our elections seriously, even if Trudeau and his Liberal government do not. An open, independent public inquiry is the only way to credibly investigate Beijing’s interference in our democracy and to uncover what and when the Trudeau Liberals knew about this foreign interference.

My Conservative colleagues and I will continue to use every tool available to ensure the facts are revealed and that Trudeau comes clean with Canadians about what he knows and when he knew it.

We will not allow this prime minister and his NDP allies to hide this crucial investigation behind closed doors, away from the public eye. Canadians deserve answers.

Glen Motz is Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner

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