CANADA’S TRUDEAU OPENS INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ELECTION INTERFERENCE BY CHINA

Tue 07 March 2023:

Days after opposition parties opened up a front, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that two agencies will probe the allegations of Chinese interference in the country’s elections.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) will look into the situation, according to Trudeau. He did, however, add the condition that none of the inquiries will be made public.

Although NSIRA will evaluate how Canada’s security services handled the claims and foreign intervention, NSICOP will investigate the election meddling angle.

Trudeau also announced the appointment of an Independent Special Rapporteur to probe classified reports about Chinese muddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

“I will be appointing an independent special rapporteur, who will have a wide mandate and make expert recommendations on combating interference and strengthening our democracy,” Trudeau told reporters in Parliament Hil, Ottawa.

Interestingly, Canada’s opposition parties pushed the Trudeau administration to launch a public investigation into alleged Chinese election meddling last week.

“We want to know exactly what the Chinese authoritarian government did, and whether there were political parties aware of those actions or not,” said Pierre Poilievre, Conservative party leader.

Even after the announcement on Monday, the New Democrats criticised the NSICOP committee probe saying it was no substitute to a ‘public inquiry’.

“The way to stop foreign actors from acting in secret is to refuse to keep their secrets,” said Peter Julian, New Democrat MP.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy has refuted all the claims about election interference.

“We are not interested in meddling with Canada’s internal affairs, nor have we ever tried to do so,” it said in an email.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping reprimanded Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in front of cameras at the G20 conference in Bali last year, tensions between the two nations reached a breaking point.

Trudeau was reprimanded by Xi for disclosing information on a meeting in which the Canadian prime leader raised the subject of Chinese meddling in Canada’s internal affairs.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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