Trudeau orders probe of China role in election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that he would appoint an independent special rapporteur and order a committee of lawmakers with top-secret security clearance to probe foreign interference in Canada’s elections, amid criticism that his government is failing to take the issue seriously.

Intelligence agencies have long reported that foreign powers, including China and Russia, have sought to interfere in elections in Canada. But the matter has drawn renewed scrutiny in recent weeks after media reports about Chinese attempts to interfere in federal elections in 2019 and 2021.

The announcement marked a shift for Trudeau, who for weeks has defended his government’s handling of foreign election interference and has described the media reports as riddled with unspecified “inaccuracies.” But it fell short of the full public inquiry that opposition lawmakers had been calling for.

Trudeau said that the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians would study the alleged interference and issue a report.

The Globe and Mail, citing anonymous intelligence sources and intelligence documents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, reported last month that Beijing had employed “a sophisticated strategy” in the 2021 federal election to disrupt elections with the aim of reelecting Trudeau’s Liberals and defeating specific Conservative candidates it considered hostile to China.