Don’t dumb down the China election meddling issue, stick to the facts

In response to the explosive reporting by The Globe and Mail and Global News on China's attempted interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal election campaigns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, chaired by Liberal MP David McGuinty, to assess the extent of foreign meddling. He also tasked former Supreme Court of Canada justice Marie Deschamps, chair of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, with reviewing how Canada’s national security agencies handled the external threat during the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Both bodies will report to Parliament. Trudeau also announced that he would soon appoint an “eminent Canadian” to serve as independent special rapporteur who will be making “expert recommendations on protecting and enhancing Canadians’ faith in our democracy." The rapporteur will be responsible for “informing the work of the NSIRA and the NSICOP and any other existing processes and investigations that may be carried out by independent bodies like Canada’s commissioner of elections and identify gaps that may still remain in the oversight and protection of our democracy,” reads the PMO release. The rapporteur will also make public recommendations, “which could include a formal inquiry or some other independent review process, and the government of Canada will abide by the recommendation.” Canada's Elections commissioner is also conducting a probe, and the Procedure and House Affairs Committee is looking into the issue, too. That's a lot of investigating. Canada gives China what it wants when our politicians put politics ahead of democracy. It's in the interest of democracy to allow the institutions tasked with reporting on the alleged interference to do so, without trying to score points on the prime minister for not following supposed advice CSIS would not have been able to give him, anyways. It's also in the interest of democracy for the Liberals to stop filibustering PROC to prevent Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford, from being summoned, and just allow the committee to get on with it. Politicians need to stick to the facts: all party leaders have acknowledged that China did not influence the outcome of the last two federal elections. The Prime Minister's Office will not be able to redact NSICOP's report. The Department of Justice's National Security Litigation and Advisory Group in consultation with the Privy Council Office does that. The prime minister should have reacted much more quickly and publicly to China's interference, but all politicians should try to stick to the facts, and not add fuel to a fire that a foreign country started. All 338 MPs should be working together to ensure our election process has not been subverted by outside influences. This is about Canada's democratic system. This isn't a game. The Hill Times