Katie Telford, chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, departs after appearing as a witness before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, studying foreign election interference, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Friday, April 14, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
OTTAWA – The federal Liberals’ national director said it’s unlikely the party would be able to share security concerns related to foreign interference with election candidates.
Azam Ishmael said that is because national security officials would only share such information with party officials who have specific clearances that local candidates and campaign workers do not.
Ishmael was among political operatives testifying Monday at the House of Commons procedure committee, which is probing the issue of alleged foreign interference in the past two Canadian elections.
Jeremy Broadhurst, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the party’s campaign director for the 2019 federal vote, also appeared.
Their testimony comes as pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government has steadily ramped up amid a string of media reports that alleged, citing anonymous sources, that Beijing tried to influence the outcome of the past two federal elections.
Ishmael, who oversaw the party’s most recent campaign in 2021, warned members of the committee before beginning his testimony that he would be limited in what he could say about information provided to him via national security briefings.
MPs nonetheless questioned Ishmael on the process for dealing with concerns around foreign interference attempts when it came to candidates and local campaigns.
The party’s national director said in French that if such concerns were raised during national security briefings, the party would probably not be “at liberty” to discuss it directly with candidates due to their lack of security clearance.
For his part, Broadhurst said the party defers to intelligence agencies, but the decision to approve or disqualify a candidate lies solely with the party and is not up to security officials to decide.
But Ishmael said that nonetheless, the Liberals have not “turned a blind eye” to allegations of foreign meddling in the country’s elections.
The Conservative party’s national campaign manager in 2021, Fred DeLorey, also appeared at the committee on Tuesday along with Hamish Marshall, who held the same role in 2019.
DeLorey began his testimony by reading a memo prepared for him after the 2021 election, which he said was put together after the party saw some results “were off.”
Asked earlier about Conservative losses in ridings around the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver – results the Tories allege could have been affected by Beijing’s meddling – Ishmael suggested it was the result of the party’s stance on gun-control, which erupted as an issue during the campaign.
The committee recently heard from Trudeau’s longtime chief of staff, Katie Telford, who repeatedly told MPs that national security provisions prevented her from divulging details about briefings on interference.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2023.
