House Of Commons Votes For A Public Inquiry Into CCP Election Interference

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was just delivered a blow on the issue of election interference by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) actors in Canada. Despite Trudeau trying to keep the investigation into election interference in the background by appointing a “special rapporteur” with connections to the Trudeau family and Liberal Party, the House of Commons voted in favour of launching a  public inquiry into election interference.

This comes a day after Liberal MP for Don Valley North, Han Dong, announced he was resigning from the Liberal Party caucus and sitting as an independent. Dong did this after it was uncovered by Global News that he may have advised China’s Consul General in Toronto to not release the two Michaels locked up in Chinese prison until after the 2021 federal election. This was likely done in order to not make Trudeau look weak by giving up Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, in exchange for the two Canadians, ahead of a federal election. 

Prior to this revelation and Dong stepping down from the Liberal Party caucus, it was unlikely that the NDP under the leadership of Jagmeet Singh was going to vote for a public inquiry.

Individual NDP MPs, and Singh at times, have criticized the Liberals for seemingly turning a blind eye to CCP election interference, they also did very little to pressure the government they are propping up to mount a serious public inquiry.

For a long time, the NDP was helping prevent Trudeau’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford from testifying in front of a committee probing the CCP interference issue, and Singh himself praised the supposed neutrality of “special rapporteur” David Johnston when Trudeau announced his appointment.

Now Jagmeet Singh is trying to take credit for the public inquiry going forward, despite only joining the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois in their hawkish pursuit of the scandal in the last five minutes.

It is great that a public inquiry will now be going forward, but the story right now is less about the actual public inquiry and just how much had to be leaked from CSIS sources before the NDP took the issue of election interference seriously.

The NDP may have voted for the public inquiry, but based on the way Jagmeet Singh has been behaving the last several weeks, it is unlikely he wants the inquiry to uncover anything that could put his Liberal government partners at risk. 

The Conservatives and Bloc on the other hand will be far firmer when it comes to how the public inquiry is conducted, and no doubt there will be further pressure on the government to allow a public investigator to take look into the Liberal Party itself.

Independent MP Kevin Vuong asked Justin Trudeau if he would let his “special rapporteur” look into the Liberal Party, which Trudeau punted on answering. No doubt investigating the LPC could be a major pressure point of the CCP scandal.