Special Elections Prosecutor: Canada Investigates Possible Chinese Meddling

Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau wants to investigate China’s influence in past parliamentary elections. The Special Investigator and the team must assist. The media had previously reported on China’s actions.

Given the mounting political pressures, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now wants to scrutinize more closely signs of China’s potential influence in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

The prime minister announced that he would appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether allegations of interference should be publicly investigated. Trudeau said on Monday that the rapporteur “will make expert recommendations to strengthen our democracy against interference”.

He instructed the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Intelligence to investigate foreign interference in Canada’s elections.

China reportedly wants Trudeau to win

In recent weeks, several Canadian media outlets have published reports based on intelligence that Beijing allegedly interfered in the election. Hence the covert funding or participation in election campaigns of certain candidates during the 2019 and 2021 parliamentary elections. China dismissed the allegations as “slander”.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported in February, citing unnamed intelligence sources, that China had backed Trudeau’s Liberals’ victory in the 2021 election and was working to remove conservative politicians critical of Beijing from parliament.

Trudeau wants to honor the decision

Opposition parties are demanding a full public inquiry. Trudeau has declined to do so for now, leaving that decision up to the special rapporteur. He declared that he would respect the recommendation. The Prime Minister said that all political parties agreed that the results of the 2019 and 2021 elections were not affected by foreign interference.

“But even if our election results remain unchanged, any attempt at interference by a foreign actor is worrisome and serious,” Trudeau said.

Opposition parties criticize the commission for the committee

Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilivre has now criticized the allocation to a parliamentary committee. He said that through this some information will be given to the opposition MPs and then an oath of secrecy will be administered. “Basically, it would be a ploy to prevent anyone from talking about the subject.”

A recent report emerged that there were attempts at foreign interference, but it had no effect on the outcome of the election. “We’ve known for a long time, and an independent report last week reaffirmed this, that the Chinese government and other regimes like Iran and Russia have tried to interfere not only in our democracy, but in our country in general,” Trudeau said. .