Trudeau to Testify in Foreign Election Interference Inquiry
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada pushed back on Wednesday against intelligence reports indicating that his Liberal Party may have benefited from Chinese interference in Canadian elections, saying that he had been consistently tough against an increasingly aggressive China.
Testifying in Ottawa at a federal inquiry into foreign interference, Mr. Trudeau said that his government did not have enough information to take action against reported acts of Chinese interference during the general elections of 2019 and 2021. He insisted that the votes had been “free and fair.”
While he said that foreign interference was a genuine threat, Mr. Trudeau also downplayed intelligence reports describing how Chinese government officials had sought to meddle in the selection of a Liberal member of Parliament in Toronto.
Intelligence reports made public described how, in the 2021 election, China and its proxies acted against the main opposition Conservative Party, which they believed to be against Chinese interests. Instead, a report said, Chinese officials preferred to have Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals win and hold power as a minority government.
“It would just seem very improbable that the Chinese government itself would have a preference in the election,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Mr. Trudeau’s much-anticipated testimony was the highlight of this round of public hearings, which over the past three weeks have featured his closest aides, intelligence officials and political party leaders as well as politicians believed to have been targets or beneficiaries of Chinese state interference.