As a Liberal cabinet minister prepares to travel to China, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre says it’s “outrageous” that more concrete action hasn’t been taken by the federal government to counter Chinese interference.
“Beijing interfered in two subsequent elections to help Trudeau win, they have police stations on Canadian soil, targeting Canadian citizens—I just think it’s incredible that he’s done absolutely nothing to stop it,” said Mr. Poilievre while talking to reporters on Prince Edward Island on Aug. 16.
Mr. Poilievre did not address Guilbeault’s visit specifically, but he reiterated his party’s call for an “immediate” public inquiry and the implementation of a foreign influence registry.
The government also held consultations in the spring about the foreign influence registry, but there’s been no timetable offered for the introduction of a related piece of legislation. The Conservatives have a foreign registry bill in the Senate, but it doesn’t have government support.
Calls for those measures stem from a stream of national security leaks in the press since November 2022, which depict widespread interference by the Chinese regime in Canada.
“You want to talk about extremism? That’s extreme. It’s extreme to have a Prime Minister who would allow a foreign dictatorship to run police stations in our country to single out and target Canadian citizens with intimidation,” he said.
“Maybe it’s because of their ideological kindred spirits that they have. He said, in his own words, that he admires the basic Chinese communist dictatorship, something he has never retracted.”
Mr. Trudeau said in 2013 that he has a “level of admiration for China,“ and that ”their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime.”
The federal government has not said whether it was aware of their presence before the report was released.