A House of Commons committee probing Chinese interference in the 2019 federal election was recalled Tuesday to extend its mandate to include the 2021 campaign, in response to what opposition MPs have called “shocking revelations” reported by The Globe and Mail.
The meeting of the standing committee on procedure and House affairs, scheduled to run between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET came despite a two-week break at Parliament. Details here on the meeting including a video link.
The hearing was requested by six committee members to expand the scope of a current study on foreign-election interference.
Conservative, New Democratic and Bloc Québécois MPs demanded the hearings resume after The Globe reported Friday that China had actively worked in the 2021 campaign to influence voters to elect a Liberal minority government and defeat Conservatives unfriendly to Beijing.
Also, they report here on how Canadian politicians, officials and business executives are the prime targets of Chinese government espionage that employs blackmail, bribery and sexual seduction, with the country even enlisting the Bank of China in its foreign-influence activities.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
INFLATION RATE DIPS – Canada’s annual inflation rate dipped below 6 per cent for the first time since early in 2022, helped by favourable base effects and lower prices for smartphone bills and vehicles. Story here.
TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR FORD – Ontario Premier Doug Ford is facing sharp questions about his relationship with developers as the legislature resumes following its winter break. Story here.
SCHREINER TO STAY GREEN – Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said Tuesday that he is staying on to lead his party, after a group of Liberals tried to persuade him to cross the floor. Story here.
LEGAULT ASKS TRUDEAU TO PRESS BIDEN ON MIGRANTS – Quebec Premier François Legault is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to press U.S. President Joe Biden on the massive influx of migrants entering Canada at an irregular border crossing, arguing that the province’s “capacity to receive refugees has been exceeded.” Story here.
TORIES WOO ETHNIC-MINORITY CANADIANS – The Conservatives are wooing ethnic-minority Canadians and newcomers to try to broaden their support in urban and suburban seats they need to win the next election, as a new poll shows the Tories have nibbled away at the Liberals’ lead among racialized voters since Pierre Poilievre became leader. Story here. Meanwhile, Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman – story here – relishes being a different type of Tory.
OTTAWA DIDN’T DISCLOSE OUTSOURCING CEBA PROGRAM TO ACCENTURE – The federal government paid consulting firm Accenture Inc.at least $61-million to deliver the main pandemic loan program for businesses, according to details that Ottawa has never publicly released and that were obtained under access-to-information law. Story here.
ACTRA ACCUSES OTTAWA OF PROLONGING LABOUR DISPUTE – Canada’s largest actors’ union, ACTRA, says Ottawa is prolonging a long-standing labour dispute with advertising agencies by spending tens of millions of dollars with a major creative marketing company – which the union says has locked out its members from commercial campaigns. Story here.
NATIONAL GALLERY SPENDS $2M ON SEVERANCE – The National Gallery of Canada spent more than $2-million on severance payments over a period of two and a half years, not including payments to four senior staff members let go in the fall, as it parted ways with employees during a push to reorient itself around a new inclusion-focused mission. Story here.
LIBERAL MP SUGGESTS SOLUTIONS FOR ONTARIO LIBERALS – Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith says the provincial Liberal Party’s future hinges on a break from the past, edging closer to a bid to lead the Ontario party. Story here from The Kingston Whig-Standard.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – The Commons is on a break until March 6.
POLITICAL FORECAST – THE WEEK AHEAD – Both the House of Commons and the Senate are on breaks, with the House of Commons returning on March 6 and the Senate on March 7.
Still there will be committee action, with the Commons standing committee on procedure and house affairs meeting on Tuesday to discuss expanding the scope of their current study on foreign-election interference. (See above.)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on the road on Tuesday, holding a town hall with members of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario in York Region, Ontario, and a party fundraising event in Brampton, Ont.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is attending meetings of the G7 and G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Bengaluru, India, from Thursday to Saturday. Topics on the agenda include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, inflation and climate change.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly will be in New York City on Wednesday, speaking at the UN General Assembly’s emergency special session on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The minister’s visit follows meetings on trips to Ukraine, Germany, and France,
MINISTERS ON THE ROAD – Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, in Milton, Ont., announced funding for Trucking HR Canada to address labour shortages in the trucking industry. Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett, in Toronto, announced funding to enhance mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, in Antigonish, N.S., along with Nova Scotia Health Minister Michelle Thompson announced a combined $1.22-million investment to support two rural public transit projects in Antigonish County. National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier, in Murdochville, Que., announced federal-government funding for Chic‑Chac, a Gaspésie tourism business.
NEW ROLE FOR DELORME – Chief Cadmus Delorme of Cowessess First Nation, where hundreds of graves were found at a former residential school, has been appointed chairperson of the new Residential School Documents Advisory Committee. Earlier this month (story here from CBC) Mr. Delorme said he would not seek a third term as chief of the Saskatchewan First Nation. The documents advisory committee, comprised of survivors, First Nations, Inuit and Métis community members, and federal and expert representatives, is responsible for developing recommendations on the identification and sharing of documents of historical interest with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The appointment was announced Tuesday by Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller and Stephanie Scott, executive director of the national centre.
MOORE QUESTIONS EVENT – Former federal Conservative cabinet minister James Moore is here taking issue with an event held Tuesday by the Canada Strong & Free Network.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Ottawa, held private meetings and, in York Region, Ontario, participated in a town hall with members of the Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario. In the evening, Mr. Trudeau was scheduled to attend a Liberal Party of Canada fundraising event in Brampton.
LEADERS
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre held a news conference on Parliament Hill.
No schedules released for party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Tuesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, political columnist John Ibbitson discusses the importance of the public inquiry into the trucker convoy protest, which found the federal Liberal government acted appropriately in enacting the Emergencies Act. Mr. Ibbitson also talks about the political winners and losers and what he hopes will be done with the recommendations of inquiry head Justice Paul Rouleau. The Decibel is here.
TRIBUTE
PETER HERRNDORF – Peter Herrndorf has died, aged 82.“In a career that spanned more than five decades, Mr. Herrndorf brought daring change and innovation to the CBC, saved TVOntario from privatization and turned the moribund National Arts Centre into a genuinely national hub of creativity that was celebrated from coast to coast to coast and, perhaps most impressively, by members of all political parties,” Reporter Simon Houpt writes in an obituary here. Meanwhile, Steve Paikin, the host of TVOntario’s flagship current affairs program The Agenda, remembers Mr. Herrndorf here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Boardon the need for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stand up to China: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is awfully tough on suspected Chinese spy balloons. After the United States shot one down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, he authorized a similar fate for another flying in Canadian airspace a week later. If only Mr. Trudeau were as quick to pull the trigger on Chinese interference in Canadian elections.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail)on how downtown Ottawa has been changed by the pandemic and trucker convoy: “Like all Canadian cities, Ottawa’s city centre was damaged by the pandemic, as people worked from home and office buildings sat empty. But in the national capital, public servants have been slow to return to work. And the protests left the city traumatized. Officials are so fearful of future protests that they have closed Wellington Street, at the foot of Parliament Hill, to traffic. “We are never going back to the world we lived in 2019,” said Mark Sutcliffe, Ottawa’s mayor. “And we need to adapt to what things are going to look like going forward.” The question, to which no one has the answer just yet, is what that adaptation will look like.”
Alex Beraskow (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on government outsourcing being good, McKinsey and ArriveCan scandals notwithstanding: “The Government of Canada is our country’s single largest employer and our most complex business. It is easy to target consultants and contractors as a cost sink, but while there are specific issues with McKinsey and ArriveCan, there is nothing inherently wrong with outsourcing. In fact, when done right, outsourcing is good and should be encouraged. At issue is the tough question “Do we make/build ourselves or do we buy?”
Quebec Premier François Legault (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on why it’s time to close the breach at Roxham Road and enforce Canada’s borders: “Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited all those fleeing persecution, terror and war on Earth to come to Canada in January, 2017, the number of asylum seekers entering Canada has exploded. It was generous on the part of Mr. Trudeau, and in Canada as in Quebec, we have reason to be proud of our tradition of welcoming refugees. We did it for the Vietnamese boat people at the time, for the Haitians who were fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship, the Chileans who were fleeing the Pinochet regime and, more recently, for Afghans, Syrians and now Ukrainians. However, Mr. Trudeau’s good intentions turned into a real problem for Quebec and for Canada.”
Kent Roach, Amanda Carling, Jessie Stirling and Joel Voss (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how Ottawa’s new bill offers hope to the wrongfully convicted: “After five years of research, review, and development, and with the help of numerous volunteers, we launched the Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions. As teachers of and students in a long-running course on wrongful convictions at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, we thought we knew about most of Canada’s remedied wrongful convictions. We were wrong.”
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OTTAWA – The federal agency that investigates election infractions found insufficient evidence to support suggestions Beijing wielded undue influence against the Conservatives in the Vancouver area during the 2021 general election.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ recently completed review of the lingering issue was tabled Tuesday at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.
The review focused on the unsuccessful campaign of Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu in the riding of Steveston-Richmond East and the party’s larger efforts in the Vancouver area.
It says the evidence uncovered did not trigger the threshold to initiate a formal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.
Investigators therefore recommended that the review be concluded.
A summary of the review results was shared with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP. The review says both agencies indicated the election commissioner’s findings were consistent with their own understanding of the situation.
During the exercise, the commissioner’s investigators met with Chinese Canadian residents of Chiu’s riding and surrounding ones.
They were told of an extensive network of Chinese Canadian associations, businesses and media organizations that offers the diaspora a lifestyle that mirrors that of China in many ways.
“Further, this diaspora has continuing and extensive commercial, social and familial relations with China,” the review says.
Some interviewees reported that this “has created aspects of a parallel society involving many Chinese Canadians in the Lower Mainland area, which includes concerted support, direction and control by individuals from or involved with China’s Vancouver consulate and the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in China.”
Investigators were also made aware of members of three Chinese Canadian associations, as well as others, who were alleged to have used their positions to influence the choice of Chinese Canadian voters during the 2021 election in a direction favourable to the interests of Beijing, the review says.
These efforts were sparked by elements of the Conservative party’s election platform and by actions and statements by Chiu “that were leveraged to bolster claims that both the platform and Chiu were anti-China and were encouraging anti-Chinese discrimination and racism.”
These messages were amplified through repetition in social media, chat groups and posts, as well as in Chinese in online, print and radio media throughout the Vancouver area.
Upon examination, the messages “were found to not be in contravention” of the Canada Elections Act, says the review, citing the Supreme Court of Canada’s position that the concept of uninhibited speech permeates all truly democratic societies and institutions.
The review says the effectiveness of the anti-Conservative, anti-Chiu campaigns was enhanced by circumstances “unique to the Chinese diaspora and the assertive nature of Chinese government interests.”
It notes the election was prefaced by statements from China’s ambassador to Canada and the Vancouver consul general as well as articles published or broadcast in Beijing-controlled Chinese Canadian media entities.
“According to Chinese Canadian interview subjects, this invoked a widespread fear amongst electors, described as a fear of retributive measures from Chinese authorities should a (Conservative) government be elected.”
This included the possibility that Chinese authorities could interfere with travel to and from China, as well as measures being taken against family members or business interests in China, the review says.
“Several Chinese Canadian interview subjects were of the view that Chinese authorities could exercise such retributive measures, and that this fear was most acute with Chinese Canadian electors from mainland China. One said ‘everybody understands’ the need to only say nice things about China.”
However, no interview subject was willing to name electors who were directly affected by the anti-Tory campaign, nor community leaders who claimed to speak on a voter’s behalf.
Several weeks of public inquiry hearings will focus on the capacity of federal agencies to detect, deter and counter foreign meddling.
In other testimony Tuesday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told the inquiry that parliamentarians who were targeted by Chinese hackers could have taken immediate protective steps if they had been informed sooner.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2021 some MPs and senators faced cyberattacks from the hackers because of their involvement with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which pushes for accountability from Beijing.
In 2022, U.S. authorities apparently informed the Canadian government of the attacks, and it in turn advised parliamentary IT officials — but not individual MPs.
Genuis, a Canadian co-chair of the inter-parliamentary alliance, told the inquiry Tuesday that it remains mysterious to him why he wasn’t informed about the attacks sooner.
Liberal MP John McKay, also a Canadian co-chair of the alliance, said there should be a clear protocol for advising parliamentarians of cyberthreats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
