There was no need to overturn Dong’s selection, Liberal official tells probe
OTTAWA — The director of the Liberal election campaign in 2019 says he recommended Justin Trudeau take no action on alleged nomination irregularities in a Toronto riding.
Jeremy Broadhurst’s testimony at a federal inquiry on Tuesday shed fresh light on suggestions of Chinese interference in the selection of Han Dong as the Liberal nominee in Don Valley North five years ago.
Dong left the Liberal caucus following reports about allegations he willingly participated in Chinese meddling and won his seat in 2019 with Beijing’s help — accusations he denies.
Broadhurst described Tuesday how intelligence officials briefed Liberal party representatives in 2019 about the alleged irregularities, prompting him to pass the information on to the prime minister.
A summary of unconfirmed government intelligence presented to the inquiry last week said Chinese international students with fake addresses had been bused into the riding and coerced to vote for Dong’s nomination to avoid losing their student visas.
“We talked to the experienced Liberal party volunteer who ran the meeting to see if there was anything out of the usual,” Broadhurst recalled. “It was a hotly contested nomination, it was busy. But there was nothing that stood out as abnormal.”
In addition, he said, the intelligence officials did not recommend that the party take any measures as a result of the information. “Hundreds of people had come up to express their democratic will,” said Broadhurst, adding he thought the bar for overturning the result “should be extremely high.”
He said he recommended to Trudeau “that no action be taken,” and the prime minister “decided at that time that there was there was no action for him to take.”
The hearings are part of the commission of inquiry’s examination of possible foreign interference by China, India, Russia and others in the last two general elections.
Trudeau’s deputy chief of staff, Brian Clow, told the commission he advocated for the public release of a classified document that he believed would clear Dong’s name in relation to a separate allegation.
Dong has been accused of advocating against the immediate release of two Canadians detained in China — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — during a 2021 phone call he had with a Chinese consular official.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service ultimately opted not to release a summary of the call, which Clow said he felt would exonerate Dong.