Trudeau Says He Shares Canadian Public’s Concerns About Chinese Election Interference

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with National Defence Minister Anita Anand in Toronto on Feb. 24, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he shares the concerns about Chinese election interference that a recent poll found a majority of Canadians hold, adding that he understands the public’s desire for government accountability in investigating the matter.

“I very much share the concerns of Canadians around interference from the Chinese government or other foreign governments, and I have shared those concerns all the way back to 2015,” Trudeau told reporters in Winnipeg on March 3.

A recent Nanos Research poll commissioned by CTV News found that over 90 percent of Canadians are either concerned or somewhat concerned about “China’s interference in Canadian society,” with 59 percent of individuals surveyed holding the former position.

The research found that only 3 percent of Canadians were not at all concerned about Chinese interference in Canada, while 1 percent were unsure about it.

Furthermore, over 90 percent of survey respondents said they believed the Chinese government’s attempts to interfere in Canada’s 2021 federal election represented a threat to Canadian democracy, with over 70 saying it was a major threat and 23 percent calling it minor.

Trudeau said election interference has become a greater issue across the entire globe since his government first took power in 2015, saying that countries like France, the United States, and other foreign democracies have become “subject to foreign interference.”

He added that his government has created a number of “mechanisms” to detect and stop foreign interference in Canada, naming the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol formed in 2019 as an example.

“Not only do I share the preoccupations of Canadians, we have taken action significant actions over the past eight years to increase our ability to [counter interference],” Trudeau said, adding that it’s an “ongoing challenge.”

Public Inquiry Calls

All federal opposition leaders have called on Trudeau to initiate a public inquiry into foreign election interference following recent reports by the Globe and Mail and Global News citing Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents and sources showing widespread election interference by Beijing in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Reporters asked Trudeau on March 3 about his hesitancy to call such an inquiry after he has ruled it out on more than one occasion.

“I absolutely hear that Canadians want to be reassured that independent experts are looking at this issue. They want to make sure that all the right questions are being posed of our intelligence and security agencies in a rigorous way to make sure they’re doing everything possible,” he said, adding that Canadians “want a level of public accountability from those officials.”

The prime minister said there are already mechanisms in place to investigate the interference allegations, such as the National Security and Intelligence Committee and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC).

However, MPs on PROC voted 6–5 on March 2 in favour of a motion to call on Trudeau to launch a public inquiry into election interference reports.

Andrew Chen contributed to this report.