Carney, Poilievre Address Foreign Interference Issues on Campaign Trail

Carney, Poilievre Address Foreign Interference Issues on Campaign Trail
(Left) Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks in Ottawa on March 14, 2025. (Right) Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks with media in Ottawa on Mar 10, 2025. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang; The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
Noé Chartier
Updated:
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The issue of foreign interference in Canadian democracy surfaced on the campaign trail on March 25, with Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre facing questions on the issue by reporters.

Carney criticized Poilievre for not obtaining a top-level security clearance, while Poilievre accused Carney of having financial ties to Beijing through his former company.

The comments came after The Globe and Mail earlier that day published a report based on an anonymous source saying that Indian agents had fundraised and organized on behalf of Poilievre during the 2022 Conservative leadership race.

The information from the source, said to have a top-secret security clearance, reportedly came from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The source added that CSIS had no evidence Poilievre or his inner circle were aware of the meddling, and that the information was not shared with Poilievre because he does not have the required top-secret security clearance, as opposed to other party leaders.

The Liberals last year asked all party leaders to obtain the security clearance needed to read an unredacted version of intelligence documents on parliamentarians who may be acting inappropriately when it comes to foreign interference. However, Poilievre has refused, saying it would in effect gag him from criticizing the government.

Allegations of India meddling in a Conservative race had been reported previously by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), which said in June 2024 that India had allegedly interfered in an unspecified leadership race of the Conservative Party of Canada. The information was sourced from a 2022 CSIS report.

The report from the committee, composed of security-cleared parliamentarian members of each political party, also said India is the “second-most significant foreign interference threat” after the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The Foreign Interference Commission also said in its final report that it heard allegations about India’s interference in a non-specified Conservative leadership race. The commission noted, however, that CSIS witnesses testified they had “no reason to believe the impacted candidates would have been aware of the alleged support.”

During a campaign stop in Halifax, reporters asked Carney about the Globe and Mail article.

Carney said he finds it “beyond baffling” and “down right irresponsible” that Poilievre has not sought to obtain a security clearance to be able to receive information about foreign interference threats.

“He particularly has to answer for that given the reporting that I understand you and your colleagues did today, and the lack of integrity in the Conservative leadership race,” he said.

Carney said the Liberal Party had taken every effort to ensure its recent leadership race was protected, using an “onerous” system to verify voters’ identities and locations. The system led to a number of registered Liberals not being able to vote. The party said it had signed 400,000 people to vote, but in the end just under 152,000 cast a ballot.

The party changed its registration rules before the race to prevent foreign nationals from taking part, as it previously allowed anyone “ordinarily” residing in Canada to register. The Liberals kept the registration free of charge.

Poilievre Responds

Poilievre has been asked by the governing Liberals to obtain top-level security clearance for months, but he has rejected the idea, saying it would prevent him from criticizing the government freely on matters of foreign interference. He says he has obtained a clearance in the past as a minister of the Crown, and that his current chief of staff has a security clearance.
Tory candidate Michael Chong, who served as foreign affairs critic and has been targeted by Chinese interference, reacted on social media to the Globe’s story on alleged India meddling by saying that he had been briefed by the government about the threats he faced even though he also doesn’t have the security clearance.

He noted that during the 2022 leadership race and up until today, Poilievre “hasn’t been informed of any foreign interference targeting his leadership campaign.” Chong said that’s because the Liberal government “refuses to brief Mr. Poilievre on this threat. Gov’t sources will tell the Globe, but not Mr. Poilievre.”

During a campaign stop in the Toronto area on March 25, Poilievre addressed the Globe and Mail report and said he had won the 2022 leadership race “fair and square.” He also noted how CSIS said candidates were not aware of the alleged meddling efforts by India.

Poilievre then said he had questions for Carney regarding his past dealings with China’s central bank.

“I’m glad that the Liberals put this attack out today, really glad, because there’s something that’s really been worrying me after Justin Trudeau named Mark Carney his economic adviser, giving him massive power over public policy in Canada,” Poilievre said.

Carney had begun advising the Liberal government at least since 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he was appointed as special adviser to then-Liberal Leader Trudeau in September 2024.

Poilievre said that after Carney was put in that role, he travelled to Beijing in October to hold talks with the deputy governor of China’s central bank, and that “two weeks later, Brookfield got a quarter billion dollar loan.”

“What did they talk about?” said Poilievre.

Carney was at the time board chair of investment firm Brookfield Asset Management. Bloomberg News reported in November 2024 that Brookfield was looking to refinance a loan backing its purchase of a Shanghai-based office tower complex. Brookfield secured a US$276 million loan from the Bank of China, Bloomberg said.

Carney left his roles on corporate boards when he entered the Liberal leadership race and says he has now placed his assets in a blind trust. He has not divulged his assets but said he has set up conflict-of-interest screens with the ethics commissioner related to his past roles with Brookfield and payment processor Stripe.

Conservatives have for weeks urged Carney to disclose his assets, and Poilievre said Carney currently has “massive financial interests” in Brookfield, which owes a loan to a Chinese state-owned bank.

“How is he ever going to stand up to foreign interference when he is so financially compromised,” said Poilievre of Carney. The Tory leader also noted that China has executed four Canadian citizens in recent days and previously took Canadians “hostage,” in an apparent reference to Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. The two were detained for over a thousand days in relation to the Meng Wanzhou affair, a Huawei executive arrested in Canada over a U.S. extradition warrant for fraud.

Carney addressed Poilievre’s comments on March 26, again saying he quit all his corporate roles when he ran as a Liberal leadership candidate in January.

He also said as part of the efforts to diversify trading partners, Canada can look into building more ties with Asian countries, while adding that potential partners in that region that share Canada’s values “don’t include China.”

“There’s certain activity that we could have with China. We obviously do have a large amount of trade with them, but we have to be very careful, very deliberate, and they need to meet Canadian standards,” he said.