TORONTO—Instead of feeling “serene and confident” in invoking the Emergencies Act to deal with convoy protesters, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be more concerned with reports of China’s interference in Canadian elections, says former Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole.
“What I found troubling today in the Prime Minister’s testimony was that he said he was ’serene and confident,' meaning he’s very confident, and he’s at ease with the fact that he overreacted and used our War Measures Act or Emergencies Act for troublesome protests—and he’s doing nothing about active foreign interference,” the MP for Durham told The Epoch Times on Nov. 25, following Trudeau’s testimony at the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act the same day.
“A domestic protest made him take serious action, and foreign interference, he’s been taking no action. What does that show?”
The Public Order Emergency Commission has been set up as required by law to evaluate whether the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to clear convoy protests in February was justified. Trudeau, who was the last person to testify at the public hearings phase of the commission, said on Nov. 25 that he is sure that he made the right choice by invoking the act.
‘Fight for Our Democracy’
Global News reported on Nov. 7 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) covertly funded at least 11 candidates during the 2019 federal election, and that Trudeau had been briefed on the issue in January.Responding to the report, Trudeau told reporters on Nov. 7 that China and other state actors “are continuing to play aggressive games with our institutions, with our democracies.”
“I get briefed up regularly from our intelligence and security officials,” Trudeau told reporters in Djerba, Tunisia, on Nov. 20. “I have no information on any federal candidates receiving money from China.”
O'Toole, whose party platform had an extensive section on China policy at the time of the 2021 election when he was leader, said he thinks Trudeau has been “offside for many years on China.”
“He should act, stand up to foreign interference, regardless of what country it comes from. It should be non-partisan. The Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, the Bloc—name the party—should all want our elections to be free from interference in every single riding,” he said.
Election Interference
Speaking on a panel on Nov. 25 during a book launch event in Toronto for “China Nexus,” authored by Benedict Rogers, O'Toole said he’s happy to see that the issue of election interference is getting more attention in the media.The MP talked about how foreign interference had an impact in the 2021 federal election when he was leading the Conservative Party.
“Our pollsters, our modellers, [on election] night told me I was winning 129 seats. We won 119. There was voter suppression in a series of ridings in the Lower Mainland [B.C.] and in the GTA,” he said.
Chiu introduced a foreign agents registration act in the last session of Parliament, which if enacted would have compelled those working on behalf of foreign entities to register as foreign agents.
‘We’ve Allowed This to Happen’
O'Toole said that if the reported number of candidates allegedly funded by the Chinese regime was at 11 in 2019, it would have grown to more than that by this point.“Are there potentially some MPs in the House of Commons who, unbeknownst to them, have had people around them that in intelligence circles ... would have been considered compromised? Nobody wants to think that a single member of any party would have people around them that would have been compromised,” he said.
“We’re in a real period that if we don’t take this seriously, our foreign policy will change because we’ve allowed this to happen.”
