Achi news desk-
A secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service briefing prepared for the Prime Minister’s Office in February last year said Beijing had “deviously and fraudulently interfered in the 2019 and 2021 general elections.”
The classified document, dated February 21, 2023, was drafted in response to media stories, including one in The Globe and Mail, which outlined a sophisticated campaign by China and its proxies to interfere in the 2021 election. The document was published on Photo, when it was presented to the Commission of Inquiry into Foreign Interference.
“We know that the PRC has covertly and fraudulently interfered in the 2019 and 2021 general elections,” the document said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
In both cases, he said, China’s intervention was “pragmatic in nature and focused primarily on supporting those deemed to be either ‘pro PRC’ or ‘neutral’ on matters of government interest the PRC.”
Political parties kept in the dark about Chinese foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections
The document said there had been 34 previous CSIS briefings on foreign interference for the PMO, senior ministers and chief civil servants, including officials responsible for election integrity. Those briefings took place between June, 2018, and December, 2022, he said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had at least two briefings, one in February, 2021, and one in October, 2022.
The inquiry into foreign interference, led by Quebec Court of Appeal Judge Marie-Josée Hogue, was announced by the federal government in September, after months of reporting by The Globe and other media on Chinese interference in Canadian democracy, including the 2019 elections and 2021. The investigation is now nearing the end of two weeks of public hearings on election interference by China and other foreign countries.
Mr. Trudeau has ruled out foreign interference, especially in the 2021 election. He has accused the Conservatives of being sore losers and insisted there is no doubt about the general results of that election, where the Liberals were returned with a minority.
Erin O’Toole, who was leader of the Conservatives during the 2021 election, has acknowledged that the Liberals won. But he told the inquiry last week that his party had lost as many as nine seats due to state-sponsored disinformation campaigns in China.
The document explained that Canadian intelligence officials consider it likely that China transferred $250,000 to Canada for foreign interference operations during the 2019 election. In the 2021 election, the document said, Canadian intelligence found that China had bent on defeating Conservative candidates, and that she had carried out a disinformation campaign against Mr. O’Toole and Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who was defeated in that campaign.
In 2021, China’s foreign intervention activities “were almost certainly motivated by a perception that the Conservative Party of Canada was promoting a platform that was seen as anti-PRC,” the document said. “We also observed online and media activity aimed at discouraging Canadians, particularly of Chinese heritage, from supporting Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, and particularly Steveston-Richmond-East candidate Kenny Chiu.”
Federal officials asked Facebook to remove false claims about Trudeau’s 2019 campaign, according to an investigation
The document said a number of cabinet ministers and senior officials had been briefed on “the role of co-opted and proxies in the PRC’s foreign intervention efforts” in Canada. “Until [foreign interference] is considered an existential threat to Canadian democracy, and governments are responding forcefully and actively, these threats will continue,” he added.
The commission heard on Monday from senior officials sitting on the Critical Electoral Event Public Protocol panel, which had a mandate to alert the public during the last two elections if there were serious concerns about foreign interference.
One official who served on the panel, Nathalie Drouin, a former deputy justice minister and currently Mr Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser, told the inquiry on Monday that the panel did not have concrete proof of China’s activities against the Party Conservative in the 2021 election.
In 2019 and 2021, Ms Drouin said, the panel did not want to issue warnings about China’s activities for fear of alarming the public.
“There was some risk that any intervention by the panel may do more harm than good. It had the potential to create confusion and also to be seen to interfere in a democratic exercise, and we also want to make sure that we are not seen to be taking a partisan position in any debate,” he said.
Gib Van Ert, counsel for Conservative MP Michael Chong, who CSIS has said was targeted by China in the 2021 election, asked the panel why they did not issue a warning in Mandarin that the information being disseminated about Mr Chiu is false
David Morrison, who was acting adviser on national security and intelligence in 2021 and is now deputy minister of foreign affairs, replied that it was up to Mr Chiu to unload the false information. “It is not the role of the panel to decide what is true or what is false,” he said.
Ms. was asked. Drouin why the panel warned the Liberal Party about possible interference from China in the Liberal nomination race in Don Valley North, where Han Dong eventually became a candidate and later won the riding in the 2019 election. CSIS had information that international students from China had been bussed to the nomination meeting, and that the Chinese consul in Toronto had pressured them to vote for Mr Dong.
Ms Drouin said the panel had notified the Liberals as a “palliative” measure. Mr Van Ert told Ms. Drouin that informing the Liberals does not seem to have achieved any mitigation. He noted that Mr Dong is now an MP.
Former chief council clerk Janice Charette, who chaired the panel in 2021, said the group was confident that year’s election, including races in individual ridings, was fair and unaffected by foreign interference.
Ms Drouin said she was satisfied that the 2019 election had been conducted fairly.
But according to a summary of Mr Morrison’s previous closed-door evidence with counsel for the inquiry, which was made public on Monday, he briefed the government in the weeks after the 2021 election on a “substantial piece of intelligence” relating to foreign interference possible from an unnamed country.
“He saw this information as the closest thing to a ‘smoking gun’ he saw during his tenure as national security adviser, the summary said.
When questioned at the inquiry on Monday, Mr Morrison said he was unable to identify the country or provide any further information in a public setting.
Duff Conacher, co-ordinator of the advocacy group Democracy Watch, said on Monday that he is concerned that the federal civil servants who run election monitoring units lack independence. He suggested that this made them reluctant to take steps to expose and prevent foreign interference.
“Almost everyone who monitors foreign interference for the federal government is appointed by the ruling party’s cabinet, and serves at pleasure, and the rules they operate under are designed to hide instead of exposing and preventing intrusion,” said Mr Conacher. He said.
“Given their lack of independence from the ruling party’s cabinet, it is not surprising to see Canada’s foreign interference watchdogs defend the government’s enforcement record during the 2019 and 2021 elections.”
Lawyers for human rights groups submitted a motion at the inquiry on Monday intended to address concerns that vital evidence was made available to them and other parties at the last minute, giving them little time to read the documents before grilling witnesses. the government.
The lawyers told Justice Hogue on Monday that the late filing was a breach of procedural fairness.
Justice Hogue said she understood that “some feel they do not have the time necessary to properly prepare their cross-examination.” He ruled that he would make some adjustments to the hearings.
Sarah Teich, counsel for the Human Rights Coalition, noted that the Privy Council documents were presented after CSIS Director David Vigneault and Privy Council Office official Allen Sutherland had already testified last week. Mr Sutherland helped set up a special election oversight task force made up of senior civil servants, known as the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, or SITE.
Ms Teich asked Mr. Vigneault and Mr Sutherland were recalled for further examination. Justice Hogue said he would allow the lawyers to submit written questions to the two men.
The commission will conclude this round of public hearings on Wednesday with evidence from the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers. Another set of hearings is due to take place in the autumn.
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