Trudeau challenges Canadian spy agency’s claims of Chinese election interference

Toronto: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has questioned the assertion by the country’s spy agency that China “clandestinely and deceptively” conducted foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 Federal elections in Canada.
Trudeau appeared on Wednesday before the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, which is headed by Justice Marie-Josee Hogue.
Trudeau said, “What I am saying, you have to take this intelligence, you have to take this information, with a certain awareness that it still needs to be confirmed or it might not be 100-per-cent accurate.”
Those allegations were contained in a briefing note from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or CSIS, provided to the Prime Minister’s Office in February 2023. That document, titled Briefing to the Prime Minister’s Office on Foreign Interference Threats to Canada’s Democratic Institutions, said, “We know that the PRC clandestinely and deceptively interfered both in the 2019 and 2021 general elections.” PRC refers to the People’s Republic of China.
The target was the principal opposition Conservative Party and its then leader Erin O’Toole, who adopted a platform that was sharply critical of Beijing. “In 2021, the PRC FI were almost certainly motivated by a perception that the Conservative Party of Canada was promoted on a platform that was perceived to be anti-PRC,” the CSIS note stated.
Earlier, O’Toole had testified before the Inquiry they won fewer seats than what was expected, down from the 127 modelled to the final outcome of 199 in the 2021 Federal elections. Though, he said, that would not change the ultimate result of the election, with the ruling Liberal Party returning to power and Trudeau heading another minority government, he estimated that “suppression” could have led to a loss of between five and nine seats. “I think a lot of people didn’t vote because they were intimidated,” he had said.