Tories Say Inquiry Should Conclude Foreign Interference ‘Impacted’ Elections

Erin O'Toole leaves after appearing as a witness at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions in Ottawa on April 3, 2024. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

There is sufficient evidence to conclude foreign interference impacted the last two elections, the Conservative Party told the public inquiry in its submission.

The party also said the standard applied by elections integrity mechanisms, which didn’t raise flags about interference, is “flawed.”

The public hearings of the foreign interference commission concluded on April 10 and parties with intervenor status have provided their respective assessments of what has been unveiled so far.

In its April 15 written submission, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) argued that by the nature of intelligence, with its “missing pieces,” it will always be hard to firmly determine if interference is taking place.

In this context, the CPC says the commission should conclude the standard applied by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force and the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (referred to as the Panel of 5) is defective.

During electoral campaigns, the SITE task force receives and assesses interference-related information from security agencies, whereas the Panel of 5 can warn the public if an event threatens elections integrity.

“If action is only taken where the Panel of 5 can decisively conclude, by consensus, that foreign interference is occurring, that standard will never be met in light of the reality of how intelligence is gathered,” says the CPC.

The CPC also suggests the commission conclude that while foreign interference did not decide which party formed government, “foreign interference impacted the 2019 and 2021 general elections.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified at the inquiry on April 10 and maintained that elections were sound despite interference attempts.

“Every briefing I’ve ever got from all my intelligence and security experts is that those elections were indeed free and fair and nothing we have seen and heard, despite, yes, attempts by foreign states to interfere, those elections held in their integrity; were decided by Canadians,” he said.

‘We Know’

Evidence presented at the inquiry indicates the federal government was aware of potential foreign interference in the two elections as it occurred, mostly coming from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) currently holds the view that “We know that the PRC clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections,” according to 2023 briefing notes to the prime minister.

The public was not informed in 2019 and 2021 of such interference, and only found out through intelligence leaks in the media starting in November 2022.

Nathalie Drouin, the prime minister’s top security adviser and a previous member of the Panel of 5, told the inquiry the threshold was “very high” to warn the public of a threat to elections integrity and that doing so could be seen as “partisan” or “create confusion.”

The CPC criticized the panel in its submission, saying the thresholds was not only “universally regarded as being ’very high,‘ but it would seem that it was effectively treated as ’impossible to meet.'”

The CPC argues the panel had the responsibility to warn about events which could pose a threat, and not about activities which had actually impaired the ability to hold a free and fair election.

“Despite being aware of the corrosive threat posed by foreign interference, the evidence in the present Inquiry demonstrates that the Trudeau Government has failed in its response to foreign interference,” says the CPC.

It calls the countermeasures adopted by the government “inaccessible, cumbersome and ineffective.”

‘Orchestrated’ by Beijing

The Liberal government has pushed back since criticism started building around foreign interference, saying it’s responsible for putting in place elections defence mechanisms such as SITE and the Panel of 5.

Minister Karina Gould testified at the inquiry the mechanisms had been put in place after 2016 to counter Russian interference. Officials have revealed at the inquiry that Russian elections interference was not detected in 2019 or 2021, but Chinese interference was.

The CPC notes how in “many instances,” politicians who were the target of interference from the Chinese regime were only warned about it much later.

Such politicians, like former Tory Leader Erin O'Toole, former Tory MP Kenny Chiu, Tory MP Michael Chong, and NDP MP Jenny Kwan, all testified at the inquiry.

Mr. O'Toole and Mr. Chiu were targeted by a disinformation campaign on Chinese media and online platforms in 2021 over their criticism of the Chinese Communist Party. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has assessed the circumstances around the campaign “all suggest these effort were orchestrated or directed” by Beijing and were aimed at at discouraging Chinese Canadians from voting for the Conservatives, according to the 2023 briefing to the prime minister.

“Did you get an understanding on September 18, 2023 why CSIS was only giving you a briefing then about foreign interference that took place for an election two years earlier?” Mr. Chiu was asked by CPC counsel Nando de Luca on April 3.

“It wasn’t explained to me, no,” said Mr. Chiu.

The government directed CSIS in May 2023 to warn politicians of interference after multiple intelligence leaks appeared in the press, including one indicating Mr. Chong was being targeted by Beijing.

Relevant ministers, including Mr. Trudeau, claimed at the time they had never been made aware of the issue.

‘Cost Him a Seat’

A key focus of the public inquiry has been around MP Han Dong, including his 2019 Liberal nomination contest in the Don Valley North riding. The CPC cited this event to argue the prime minister turned a “blind eye” on foreign interference.

A CSIS intelligence summary presented as evidence at the inquiry says that individuals associated with a known Beijing “proxy agent” provided false documents for international Chinese students to vote for Mr. Dong in the contest.

Mr. Dong modified his evidence at the last minute at the inquiry to admit he was aware the students had been bussed-in to vote, with transportation being organized by the NOIC Academy. Mr. Dong also said he “would be the first one condemning” issues such as the use of fake voting IDs.

The intelligence on the matter had been transmitted to Mr. Trudeau, but he chose to keep Mr. Dong as a candidate. Mr. Dong, who has since left the Liberal Party to sit as an Independent, has not returned multiple requests for comment.

Based on the testimony from Liberal Party officials at the inquiry, the CPC says it appears there was no appetite to find out who ultimately paid for the bus in the 2019 Don Valley North contest.

CPC counsel Nando de Luca had asked Mr. Trudeau’s senior adviser Jeremy Broadhurst whether he had tried to ascertain who hired the bus after receiving the information CSIS delivered to Liberal Party officials.

“I did not have a bus that I can point to to say, ‘who paid for that bus?’” said Mr. Broadhust on April 9.

The CPC says the commission should “conclude that Trudeau was willing to turn a blind eye to the PRC’s activities in Don Valley North, asking no follow-up questions and doing nothing with the information, because it would have cost him a seat in that election.”

Mr. Trudeau told the inquiry on April 10 the allegations of irregularities in the contest were not sufficient to overturn the nomination contest results.

“A well-grounded suspicion is certainly warranting more reflection and followups, but also might not hit the necessarily very high threshold for overturning the result of a democratic event,” he said.

The foreign interference inquiry, which has access to unredacted intelligence, is currently preparing an interim report due by May 3. A full report must be submitted by the year’s end, according to the inquiry’s terms of reference agreed upon by all major political parties in the House of Commons.