Canadian democracy in peril courtesy of Trudeau's complicity

Recent reports of China's interference in our federal elections have disturbingly revealed tacit allowance by the Trudeau Liberals, which now represents the singular gravest threat to our democracy.

Last year when President Xi Jinping admonished Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for misrepresenting their side-line conversation during the G20 Summit, it is worth reflecting back for a moment on what sparked Xi’s rebuke of Trudeau in the first place.

On the day of that brief informal discussion between the two leaders, the majority of Canadian media outlets were peddling the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) statement that Trudeau had supposedly raised his concerns regarding China's meddling in our elections.

Aside from the fact that readouts of bilateral talks normally flow from an officially scheduled meeting and agreement between leaders, which did not happen with Trudeau and Xi, Trudeau's inner circle nonetheless wanted to portray to a domestic audience that he exhibited seriousness and purpose. Xi, in turn, demonstrated the following day that these efforts on Trudeau's part were merely duplicitous. And now we can see why.

According to the Globe and Mail's recent bombshell exposé, Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) had provided warnings to the Trudeau government of a highly orchestrated scheme by China to interfere in our elections with the aim of securing Liberal re-election bids in 2019 and 2021, and despite these advanced warnings, the Trudeau Liberals ignored the CSIS briefings, thereby permitting the interference to transpire seemingly for their own gain.

Looking back now based on this revelation, are we to believe that Trudeau would have raised this issue with Xi at all, especially after Xi called him out? As has been the case with the Trudeau Liberals time again, it is far more important to be seen as doing something for optics-sake than actually doing something, and in this case what has been needed is the protection of our electoral process, which we have now come to learn was completely ignored by Trudeau.

The aforementioned CSIS report leaked by these whistleblowers to the Globe and Mail detailed an alarming and comprehensive scheme by China to ensure their preferred candidates were elected. Some of these efforts as stated in the Globe include:

• “Employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA, which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals.”

• “Chinese diplomats and their proxies, including some members of the Chinese-language media, were instructed to press home that the Conservative Party was too critical of China.”

• “Undeclared cash donations to political campaigns or having business owners hire international Chinese students and ‘assign them to volunteer in electoral campaigns on a full-time basis.’”

• Political campaigns favoured by Beijing “quietly, and illegally,” returned the monetary difference between the original donation and the government’s tax refund – back to those donors sympathetic and beholden to China.

If this was not enough to give Canadians pause, Global News followed with its own revelation: Three months prior to the 2019 federal election, CSIS informed senior aides in the PMO that Liberal candidate Han Dong had been installed and helped by the Chinese consulate in Toronto during his nomination race, bussing in seniors and students to vote for him, many of whom were not even Canadian citizens. CSIS advised the Prime Minister’s staff to rescind Dong's nomination on account of being a “witting affiliate” in China’s election network, but Trudeau let the compromised candidate run anyway and he was subsequently elected.

CSIS highlighted that Dong was one of 11 compromised candidates in 2019 targeted by Beijing, with that number potentially being greater for the 2021 election campaign, though its not clear at this point.

And what has been the response from the Trudeau Liberals following this slow drip of troubling information to the public?

Let us start with Trudeau himself, and his initial reaction to the Globe’s reporting, where he stated the following:

"It's certainly a sign that security within CSIS needs to be reviewed. And I am expecting CSIS to take the issue very seriously."

Upon his first opportunity to respond, one of Trudeau’s primary concerns was about CSIS dealing with its whistleblower(s), instead of delving into the substance of what was contained in those leaks - that alone ought to reveal the mindset of someone seeming as though they could have something to hide.

It gets worse. Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell during the parliamentary standing committee on Procedure and House Affairs investigating the matter, shamefully accused anyone who would even dare question the integrity of our electoral process as engaging in “Trump-type tactics.”

Ironically enough, it was Trudeau who was channeling the spirit of Trump last Friday, when once again being asked about the CSIS report leaked to the Globe, he questioned the validity of CSIS by saying:

“We are very concerned with the leaks, particularly because there are so many inaccuracies in those leaks.”

This statement harkens to the moment when Trump infamously questioned his own intelligence community on Russian interference in the 2016 US election, choosing to side with Putin’s account. Trump’s comments immediately drew bipartisan ire, forcing him to walk back his original statement, yet in Canada we see a firmly entrenched partisan division when the Prime Minister questions and/or ignores his own intelligence community, when this should be a line in the sand for all Canadians.

One must ask themselves, what is compelling the whistleblowing from CSIS in the first place? These courageous individuals are likely doing so because nothing has happened to address it, despite multiple briefings having been shared with the Prime Minister and his senior ranks.

Former Chief Electoral Officer (head of Elections Canada) Jean-Pierre Kingsley (1990-2007) has since called for an independent public inquiry, as well as former CSIS Director Richard Fadden, both underscoring the seriousness of this situation and the threat it poses to our democracy.

Notwithstanding these calls, where is Elections Canada at present? Or the RCMP for that matter? Canadians should be asking why has there been no investigation from either of these independent bodies upon learning of these disturbing revelations.

It is worth reminding that the Prime Minister has the unfettered power to appoint the head of these entities, which has led to concerns that these appointments may be influenced solely by political considerations, thereby possibly compromising the independence of these institutions. This could provide some deeper explanation as to why Canadians have not seen this matter investigated in a way that is now being suggested from former institutional heads.

Even so, Trudeau has already dismissed the idea of launching a public inquiry, only adding to the concern and bewilderment as to why this federal government seems intent on trying to casually just move on rather than facing this head on with urgency.

On that score, there have also been other options to addressing foreign interference. For example, the MacDonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) a few years ago proposed changes to party’s nomination races, such as having them subject to third-party oversight and reporting as done in general elections, which may have prevented the Dong scenario.

Another long called for legislative measure would be to establish a foreign agent registry, intended to compel registration of individuals and organizations that undertake certain activities on behalf of a foreign government in Canada, paid or otherwise.

Despite their previous acknowledgement of foreign interference in our elections, the Trudeau Liberals have done very little to challenge this threat. In what has been disclosed thus far, it is evident China's efforts seem to be emboldened rather than diminished, and in the absence of any meaningful deterrent measures such as a foreign agent registry or an independent inquisition to raise the alarm bells, interference will only increase over time.

Canadians are witnessing the slow crumbling of its last institutional pillar of accountability on government, our federal elections. Sadly it appears Trudeau seems content to let the matter flail in the political winds, knowing its ultimately to his electoral advantage to let the interference persist - and failing to act substantively on this matter only serves to continue reinforcing this impression.

Much like his disinterest in defending the Constitution as previously covered in this newsletter, Trudeau is demonstrating similar tendencies here. Canadians cannot accept the attempted normalization from this Prime Minister, as doing so is effectively signing away any claim to espousing true democratic values as a country. Never in our history has there been a situation where a Prime Minister may be more compromised, and if so, this demands immediate resignation.

It is becoming increasingly clear that perhaps the single greatest threat to our democracy are not those who seek to disrupt it, but rather the party in power who stands to benefit from the disruption. Take heed Canada.