Canada announces a probe to examine possible Chinese election interference
The claims of Chinese meddling in Canada's elections will be the subject of a special investigator's appointment, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday. Moreover, Trudeau has requested that a parliamentary national security committee review sensitive data on the subject. The Globe and Mail claimed last month that China hoped to see Trudeau's Liberals re-elected in the 2021 election and pushed to defeat Conservative candidates seen as antagonistic to Beijing, citing unnamed intelligence sources. A thorough public investigation has been demanded by opposition parties. Trudeau said he would select an impartial special rapporteur to evaluate if a public investigation is necessary but declined to do so at this time. Trudeau declared that he will follow the advice. Whether it be an inquiry, probe, or judicial review, Trudeau said, "we will ask the independent special rapporteur to present the government with a proposal as to what the right next step is and what the scope of that work may be. Mr. Trudeau stated "All political figures concur that foreign meddling did not affect the results of the elections in 2019 or 2021. But even if it had not affected the outcome of our elections, any attempt at foreign meddling is alarming and grave." On Monday, the head of the opposition Conservative party, Pierre Poilievre, criticised the notion of involving a parliamentary committee.He said that would merely lead to government representatives providing opposition members with "giving them some information and making them vow they wouldn't talk about it again. That would be a cunning move to try to stop anyone from discussing the issue."
In a recent assessment, a group of civil employees came to the conclusion that while foreign attempts to meddle were made, the election's outcome was unaffected. As an independent report confirmed once more last week, "we have long known that the Chinese government and other regimes like Iran and Russia have attempted to meddle not just in our democracy but in our country in general, whether it be our institutions, our businesses, our research facilities, or the daily lives of our citizens," said Trudeau. Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Monday that it is looking into possible Security of Information Act violations related to recent media allegations regarding suspected Russian meddling in the last two federal elections. The appointment of a special investigator, according to Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, is unmistakably a stall tactic. Béland said that although a special public investigation would seem like a politically perilous Pandora's box for Trudeau's Liberals, the fact that he didn't rule one out indicates that it is now a viable option. "It truly depends on what will be learned in the next weeks and months, but the whole thing is growing into a significant political headache for the Liberals that's unlikely to go away very soon," one observer said.
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