New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said before a public inquiry Wednesday that it is highly “improbable” that the Chinese government had a preference for a minority Liberal Party government over a Conservative Party government in Canada, questioning the intelligence collected by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
“I can certainly say that while individual officials (Chinese officials) may well have expressed a preference or another, the impression we got and consistently would get is that the actual People’s Republic of China (PRC) would have no (mumbling) it would just seem very improbable that the Chinese government itself would have preference in the election,” said Trudeau.
He was appearing before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections in Canada. The committee, set up to inquire into Chinese and Russian meddling in the 2019 and 2021 general elections, later brought India and other countries under the scope of its investigation.
His response was a question on an unclassified summary provided by the intelligence establishment to the inquiry, which noted, “In 2021, there was reporting that some individual PRC officials in Canada made comments expressing a preference for a Liberal party minority government.”
The Chinese official in question, Tong Xiaoling, a former consul-general in the Chinese consulate in Vancouver, reportedly bragged about ensuring the defeat of a Conservative member of parliament, Kenny Chiu, a strong critic of the government in Beijing.
According to Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, the name of the Chinese official and her comments featured in a report prepared by the CSIS on 10 January, 2022.
Without naming Tong or her reported comments, Trudeau said, “For a diplomat to express a preference, whether it be personal or tactical or what have you, is not — in itself — foreign interference. It may be attempts at influence; it may not be anything other than regular conduct of diplomacy.”
The Canadian Prime Minister, however, made it clear that in the specific case of China, “there are clear actions” that would “indicate a willingness to engage in foreign interference”.
Later, Trudeau, once again without naming Tong, said, “There was a foreign government official based in Canada who was taking credit for a certain thing having happened in Canada in their reporting to a superior or to their home country.”
“And just the fact that a foreign official was taking credit for having delivered a particular outcome in no way meant that anything that particular official did create(d) the outcome. Bragging is not doing,” added Trudeau.
Sources in the Indian security establishment told ThePrint, “Canada’s Committee Hearing on Foreign Interference squarely rejects India’s role in its findings, but accuses China and Communist Party of China.”
“This reflects paranoia and lack of faith in democratic processes and institutions. The Canadian authorities also reflect an attitude of suspicion towards its own citizens especially from Asian communities,” added the sources.
According to the sources, there has been an “amateurishness” in Canada’s diplomatic communication and Canadian PM Trudeau’s failing approval ratings are being “shrouded” under the “pretext of these hearings”.
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Denies seats were lost due to interference
The focus on interference by Chinese officials on electoral outcomes came after former Conservative party leader Erin O’Toole reportedly alleged during his appearance before the inquiry that the party lost up to nine seats due to foreign interference.
Trudeau dismissed O’Toole’s allegations Wednesday, asserting that the Conservatives, who lost the 2021 elections, were trying to “look for reasons other than themselves”.
The Canadian Prime Minister also took aim at the intelligence establishment for leaking “unsubstantiated, uncorroborated intelligence” to Canadian media outlets.
Since November 2022, Canadian media has reported on CSIS documents about election interference.
“CSIS had a source that said there was a June 2019 meeting that I was at, that I can, clearly and unequivocally, at the time since then, confirm never happened. I did not have the meeting that the source had said,” said Trudeau.
“This did not mean that CSIS got it wrong, but it was now able to validate (that) what their source had said in this situation was wrong,” he added, highlighting that the CSIS needed to validate single source-based information.
During cross-examination by Prabjot Singh, the counsel appearing on behalf of the Sikh Coalition community group, Trudeau did not bring up Indian interference in Canadian elections but rather the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
He argued the Liberal Party has stood up for minority rights and drew comparisons with the previous Conservative Party government that left office in 2015 for its “cozy” ties with India.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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