Liberals Refuse To Release Information On Which MPs Received Election Resources From China

For the past few days during Question Period in Canada’s House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has been dodging questions regarding Chinese foreign interference in the 2019 federal election.

According to the Conservative Party MPs questioning the Liberals, who do not dispute the details, CISIS reported that eleven federal MP candidates were supported by Beijing with hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal in-kind donations. Communist Party Of China (CCP) affiliated political influencers also targeted candidates who were critical of the authoritarian Chinese government. 

Conservative MPs Michael Cooper, Dane Lloyd, and Richard Lehoux all asked the government why Justin Trudeau continues to refuse to publicly release evidence of election interference during the 2019 federal election, but Liberal Parliamentary Secretary Pam Damoff could only respond with platitudes about keeping Canadian elections safe.

At one point Damoff even said that the 2019 Canadian election was “secure” while at the same time agreeing that the foreign interference Cooper, Lloyd, and Lehoux described did in fact take place. 

It makes no sense that the 2019 election could be secure while Damoff agrees that Beijing had injected hundreds of thousands of dollars into the election in order to serve their own interests.

Of course, the probable reason why the Liberals want to remain tight-lipped about election interference is that it probably mostly broke in their favour. Although there is evidence of CCP actors colluding with Conservative politicians, the majority of available circumstantial evidence points to the majority of CCP assistance in elections going toward the Liberals. 

Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu was elected back in 2019 and reports that not only was CCP influencing going on in that election, but it intensified on him in 2021 after he put forward a Private Members Bill in the House asking for a system to be established to register foriegn government influencers in Canada, and called out human rights abuses by the Chinese government. 

Chiu ended up losing his 2021 reelection campaign in Richmond East, British Columbia, which he is convinced was swung in favour of the Liberals in large part because of CCP interference. 

(Below is an interview with Kenny Chiu conducted by Andrew Lawton over at True North – Segment starts at 11:00) 

Not only does it seem likely that the Liberals want to hide the evidence regarding CCP election interference because it will damage the reputation of any Liberal MP who received assistance from CCP-linked actors, but it would likely require several Liberal-friendly CCP front groups to be shuttered if they are implicated in the illegal election activity.

UPDATE:

Today (November 21, 2022) Justin Trudeau claimed to have no information regarding federal candidates receiving money from foreign actors.