A public inquiry is needed to determine whether there has been Chinese interference in Canadian elections, says former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister Richard Fadden.
“In this case, the allegations are so serious they need to be looked into,”
Fadden said in an interview on Global News program The West Block on Feb. 26.
“I think the public inquiry is really the route to go,” he said, noting it should take place under the
Inquiries Act and before the next election, and should be empowered to subpoena people and documents.
“I think the first thing we need to do is to talk about this seriously, and given the general environment Canada, I don’t think it’s going to work unless we have a public inquiry,” Fadden said.
He also called for a foreign agent registry.
“I think we need the registry and I think we need to make it very clear that political parties have a responsibility for ensuring that the Canada Elections Act is complied with,” he said.
Fadden suggested that it’s “dangerous” to have the government try and regulate things too directly due to partisan activities, and that changes should be legislative.
When asked about a public inquiry by reporters in Toronto on Feb. 24, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ruled it out, saying Canada’s “electoral and democratic processes have not been compromised.”
“I think it is a very good thing that Canadians are understanding how serious it is that China and other countries are continuing to try to destabilize and influence our democracies and our institutions,” he said.
“That’s why we have continually given new resources and new tools including a panel and a task force that we set up way back in 2019.”
Trudeau said the results of the last two federal elections were not affected.
“Canadians can be and should be confident that our institutions, particularly our electoral and democratic processes, have not been compromised, were not compromised in the 2019 and 2021 elections,” the prime minister said.
’It Is not a Minor Issue’
Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former chief electoral commissioner for Canada from 1990 to 2017, has also
called for a public inquiry.
“We need to find out what has transpired. I favour an independent inquiry because this is what will satisfy Canadians. It is not a minor issue,” he told
The Globe and Mail on Feb. 23.
Kingsley said news of recent CSIS
leaks documenting Beijing’s alleged interference in the 2021 federal election suggesting the regime helped its favoured candidates in the two most recent elections is disturbing.
“The reason why this is important is that the legitimacy of government is what is at stake,” he said. “We have to trust that the electoral process is not being tampered with by a foreign government.”
On Feb. 21, the Procedure and House Affairs Committee heard
allegations based on a Globe report, that China’s former consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, bragged that she helped defeat two Conservative MPs running for election in 2021, including an MP who she allegedly described as “a vocal distractor.”
The committee
heard that China’s former Consul General Wang Jin was also allegedly involved in efforts to rally support for the Liberals and target Conservative candidates for election defeat, including tactics such as “funnelling money to candidates through illegal undeclared cash donations.”
Global News reported that three weeks before the 2019 election, top aides to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were warned in a classified CSIS briefing that one election candidate was part of a Chinese foreign interference network. It was also alleged that a former Ontario Liberal Minister was working for China.
Isaac Teo contributed to this report.
