End goal on interference was Beijing-friendly MPS
China’s Communist government was never trying to rig the nationwide outcome of either the 2019 or 2021 elections. And anyone who was hoping the Commission on Foreign Interference led by Justice Marie-josée Hogue was going to uncover a widespread plot to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in office was always going to be unsatisfied.
Instead, what Chinese agents and their surrogates were always attempting to do was ensure a handful or more of Beijing-friendly MPS ended up sitting in the caucus of the winning party.
Mission accomplished.
Hogue asked in her 194-page report, released last Friday: “Was there foreign interference targeting the 2019 and ’21 general elections? Yes, I have no difficulty concluding that there was.”
“People are right to be worried and to want to shine a light on what is going on,” Hogue wrote. The level of interference was “troubling,” even if it did not swing the whole of the election in favour of the Liberals.
And she concluded that while other foreign governments were actively interfering, too — notably Iran and India — China was far and away the most active.
In its conclusions, Hogue’s public inquiry was vastly more sensible than the two previous inquiries the Liberals put in place. In February 2023, the committee of bureaucrats the Liberals had appointed to watch out for interference in the 2021 election concluded there was “no evidence to indicate foreign state actors” had meddled in the campaign.
And, of course, last May, former governor general and “special rapporteur,” David Johnston, a longtime Trudeau family friend, found there had been interference, but held cabinet entirely blameless. “I have not found examples of ministers, the Prime Minister or their offices knowingly ignoring intelligence, advice or recommendations on foreign interference or being driven by partisan considerations in dealing with these issues.”
What a stain that naïve conclusion will always be on the legacy of an otherwise eminent Canadian.
Having twice been critical of Hogue’s inquiry, I now feel she deserves praise for showing convincingly what seemed obvious, but which the Trudeau government and earlier inquiries were apparently wilfully blind to.
One thing Hogue appears to have uncovered that has gone largely unsaid, even in her report, is that Trudeau knew of the foreign interference early on in events (meaning before the 2019 election), but ignored or downplayed Chinese meddling solely to improve Liberal election chances.
Since interference became an issue a year and a half ago, both the PM and his staff have insisted he was never told by CSIS or the RCMP that the Chinese government was conniving to get friendly Liberals elected to the House of Commons.
However, one of the most glaring examples of such a Communist conspiracy was the Liberal nomination contest in the Ontario riding of Don Valley North before the 2019 election. Since this was a safe Liberal seat, controlling the outcome of the Liberal nomination would have been equivalent to manipulating the outcome of the election itself.
Trudeau and his chief of staff, Katie Telford, have repeatedly denied knowing about efforts by Chinese diplomats, posted in Toronto, to pack the nomination meeting in favour of eventual winner, Han Dong, who has a long history of contacts with Chinese officials.
But, Hogue writes, in his closeddoor testimony, Trudeau told her “un-endorsing Mr. Dong would have (had) direct electoral consequences” for the Liberals’ chances in the riding, as well as having “a devastating impact on Mr. Dong personally.”
Not only does this show Trudeau had in fact been tipped to the possibility of Chinese interference in at least one riding as early as 2019, it also shows he puts Liberal electoral goals and the feelings of Liberal candidates above national security.
This indirect revelation about what Trudeau knew and when may be the most damaging finding of Hogue’s inquiry.