Liberal and Conservative executives defended their parties’ rules and procedures at the Foreign Interference Commission on Sept. 20, saying they adequately protect against meddling by foreign actors.
Liberal Party national director Azam Ishmael and Conservative Party executive director Mike Crase responded to questions as they were presented with intelligence reports raising interference concerns.
The Conservative Party allows citizens and permanent residents aged 14 and older to purchase a membership, while the Liberal Party allows anyone who ordinarily resides in Canada, including non-citizens and non-permanent residents, to become a party member, free of charge.
The task force, composed of representatives of security and intelligence agencies, said in the report one of the “key methodologies” used by foreign states to interfere in democratic processes is to exploit “loopholes in political party nomination processes.”
It noted that unlike in elections, individuals who are not Canadian citizens can vote in party nominations as long as they are members. “In some instances, the membership fee is paid for, or reimbursed by, a hostile state actor (HSA) or its proxies,” said the assessment.
SITE added that nomination races can be “critical” when they occur in ridings considered “safe seats” for a certain party, as the winner will go on to be elected MP as a result of being nominated as the party’s candidate. Nomination contests are governed by parties and mostly fall outside federal regulations.
“Therefore, FI [foreign interference] activities during the nomination race could achieve the desired outcome without reliance upon FI activities during the election period,” said SITE.
Crase told the inquiry that he has seen no evidence of foreign influence actors repaying individuals for members.
“We have a number of controls in place designed to support the integrity of the process as a whole,” he said. “The party has no reason to believe that any of its nomination contests have been targeted for foreign interference.”
Ishmael told the commission he doesn’t see the lack of a citizenship or permanent resident requirement in nomination races as a foreign interference vulnerability.
“If you were to extract that rule to its extreme, you would need people to show up with either their birth certificate or their passport [for] voting in a nomination meeting, so frankly, it’s not practical,” he said. “In a lot of cases, it puts an undue burden on people just looking to get active in their democratic spaces.”
Don Valley North
The Foreign Interference Commission is currently examining the government’s capacity to counter the threat of foreign meddling.In its previous round of public hearings, the inquiry focused on occurrences of interference during the past two general elections. Meddling by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the 2019 Liberal nomination race in the Toronto riding of Don Valley North (DVN) was studied in depth.
In that contest, Han Dong won and went on to be elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal MP in 2019. He was reelected in 2021.
The inquiry’s report said intelligence indicated that international students were bused to the nomination contest to support Dong, and that they were provided with falsified documents by a PRC proxy agent. The intelligence indicated that some students received veiled threats to ensure they supported Dong’s nomination.
Dong told the inquiry in April he was not aware of irregularities at the nomination contest. He now sits as an independent and denies any wrongdoing. He has not responded to requests for comment by The Epoch Times.
Ishmael said his party hasn’t reviewed its membership requirements or changed its nomination rules after the concerns raised by the intelligence community.
“We reviewed the processes, and again, we found our system to be quite robust, so there hasn’t been any material change,” he said.
“The ability to orchestrate thousands of people, or hundreds of people, to influence the outcome of a single nomination meeting without it being detected by authorities or breaking some other Elections Canada law or legislation, to me, strikes me as very, very, very minimal,” he said.
The report contained a section on the 2019 Don Valley North Liberal nomination contest that said, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the PRC “had significant impact in getting Han Dong nominated.”
“Were you previously aware that this was CSIS' conclusion?” asked Sujit Choudhry, counsel for NDP MP Jenney Kwan, who has been a victim of CCP interference tactics.
“No,” answered Ishmael.
“Would you agree that, if this is true, this would count as, to use your words, an ‘irregularity’?” continued Choudhry.
“Yeah, for sure,” replied Ishmael.
A counsel for the Government of Canada asked Crase about the NSICOP report and its mention of China and India allegedly interfering with the Conservatives’ leadership races.
Crase, who does not hold a security clearance, said he had not heard more details about those allegations.
Asked why Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had not requested security clearance so he could receive intelligence details, Crase answered, “I think that he’s made his statements about the reasons for that very clear.”
Poilievre has previously said he would not obtain security clearance because he didn’t want to be limited about what he could say about the foreign interference issue.
