The top adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says she wasn’t involved in conversations surrounding a warning given by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that a Liberal Party candidate was being supported by the Chinese regime.
“What I can say is I was never involved in a conversation on the subject,” said Trudeau’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford as she appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) on April 14.
Telford was replying to a question from Conservative MP Michael Barrett, who asked if she had recommended against the removal of then-Liberal Party candidate Han Dong in the Don Valley North riding of Toronto.
Following-up, Barrett said “OK, conversations did occur.”
“No, I’m saying I was not privy to a conversation. I don’t have an answer for you on this because there was no conversation that I was part of on this subject,” Telford said.
Opposition MPs had battled hard with the Liberals to have Telford testify on that allegation as well as others that have surfaced in the media on the same topic since November.
Telford was circumspect in answering questions about the different allegations, and about what the prime minister knew and when he knew it.
Like other members of the government who preceded her at the committee, Telford cast doubts on the information that the Chinese regime would have provided financial support to federal candidates in the Toronto area for the 2019 election.
When it came to questions about CSIS warning Trudeau’s team about Han Dong, Telford said she was not part of the conversation, without offering a dispute to the question.
A few hours before Telford’s testimony, PROC received from the Privy Council Office a list of classified briefings that were provided in recent years to Trudeau, his ministers and staff, and political parties on the issue of foreign election interference.
One of those briefings had “Cleared Liberal Party of Canada representatives” as participants and took place on Sept. 28, 2019.
This is presumably the briefing where national security officials warned the party about Dong.
Global reported that the briefing had occurred three weeks before the 2019 election, which was held on Oct. 21.
Barrett asked Telford whether Dong had been made aware of the briefing afterward.
“Was he given a readout or made aware of the contents of the briefing that was given to the cleared officials with the Liberal Party?” he said.
“Not to my knowledge, but I was not involved in that at all,” Telford answered. “During the campaigns, I was on a full-time leave for both campaigns, on the road with the prime minister for the whole campaign. So these were things managed by headquarters.”
Barrett asked Telford whether she knew who was managing the campaign in the Greater Toronto Area. She said she didn’t, but would endeavour to produce the names of the individuals from the party who had received the briefing, as per Barrett’s request.
The Conservative MP also asked whether the party officials would have relayed the information obtained to Trudeau.
“I have every confidence that they would talk to the prime minister about anything they found out,” Telford said.
Party officials from the Liberal and Conservative parties are also set to testify before PROC in the coming weeks on election interference matters, per the same motion that called for Telford to testify.
Liberal MPs in PROC filibustered the motion for an extended period until the PMO lifted its obstruction on March 21.
The following day, Global published the allegation that Dong, now sitting as an independent, was working with the Toronto Chinese Consulate on the Kovrig and Spavor case, unbeknown to his party’s leadership.
