This Chinese Interference Incident Shows Trudeau Must Step Down

Foreign interference, a term that is not foreign at all to Canadians recently, has always been plaguing Canadian democracy. And the initiators of interfering activities are almost always geopolitical rivals – most notably Iran, Russia, and China. The manipulation of democratic processes by foreign actors can take various forms, including disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, and financial contributions to political parties or candidates. In recent months, multiple foreign interference allegations against several politicians hit the headlines. According to Global News, Han Dong, a Liberal MP, benefitted from help from the Chinese consulate when he was pursuing the party’s nomination just before the 2019 election, and CSIS had warned the Liberals not to allow Dong to run. This event exposes the Prime Minister’s disloyalty to Canada and his incompetence to run Canada. 

Although official reports leaked from CSIS only became widely known to the public in the past weeks, Han Dong’s close relationships with Chinese officials and pro-China figures were published in a National Post article by Tom Blackwell back in 2019. Han Dong was endorsed by multiple pro-China political figures including ex-provincial cabinet minister Michael Chan, fired China ambassador John McCallum, and honorary chair of the Beijing-leaning Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations, Wei Chengyi, who reportedly “shook hands with Xi Jinping at an event for ‘overseas Chinese’” in 2019. Nevertheless, in both elections, Dong was nominated by the Liberal Party as the candidate for Don Valley North

But the root of the scandal is yet even more disappointing about Trudeau’s leadership, integrity and loyalty as a Canadian public servant. Three weeks before Canada’s 2019 federal election, national security officials warned the Prime Minister that one of their candidates, Han Dong was part of a Chinese foreign interference network. CSIS claims that interfering actions include “payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), placing agents into the offices of MPs in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials to gain leverage in Ottawa, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the People’s Republic of China (PRC) views as threats to its interests.” Any sensible Canadian politician that places the interests of the country above the gains of their own party would remove Han Dong as the Liberal nominee for Don Valley North. Trudeau, however, did nothing, knowingly leaving the integrity of Canada’s democracy jeopardized. In the 2021 election cycle, Dong was again supported by the People’s Republic of China to manipulate and swing the results of the 2021 election in which Conservative candidates were specifically targeted by false information campaigns in multiple ridings with high Chinese Canadian concentration. 

After the news got leaked to the public’s eyes, the response from the Prime Minister was even more bizarre. He consistently attempted to link those allegations regarding Han Dong’s misconduct to non-existent attacks on his national origin, and those with the same birthplace or even race. “One of the things we’ve seen, unfortunately, over the past years is a rise in anti-Asian racism linked to the pandemic and concerns being raised or arisen around people’s loyalties,” Trudeau said. However, it is crystal clear that the fact that Han Dong was born in China is not at all the reason he is questioned on his allegedly unacceptable behaviours. Quite frankly, associating the detest for the authoritarian autocratic communist regime in Beijing and concerns over elections integrity with the hate towards Asians should be considered as “anti-Asian” hate. This is a dictatorship that has been and is actively suppressing human rights and trampling on the basic personal freedom of the Chinese people. If the Prime Minister chooses to frame the actions of questioning and criticizing the CCP’s meddling in Canadian elections as “anti-Asian” and indisputably racist, then he is standing with the communist regime and does not stand with Canadians or freedom-loving Chinese communities who have suffered tremendously under the rule of the Beijing government. This particular stance is not trivial either, as Trudeau’s adoration for the regime stems all the way back to 2013 when he publicly claimed that “there is a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say we need to go green, we need to start, you know, investing in solar.” His response to the public is, arguably and unquestionably, an extension of this comment.

The PM’s handling of the event does not reflect transparency and indicates that he indeed does have something to hide. Instead of calling a transparent, public inquiry that would, to some extent, expose the truth to the Canadian public, he announced that an “independent special rapporteur” would be appointed to investigate the allegations, showing off his abundant vocabulary and his profound understanding of the English language. While Canadians are now certainly convinced that the Prime Minister is rather well-educated, they will not be convinced that the Trudeau Liberals were not funded by the CCP until they show some evidence. Secret investigations by committees with acronym names – NSICOP and NSIRA, surely do not aid this process and only limit transparency. The choice of the “rapporteur”, David Johnson, is also highly questionable. Johnson is, although arguably special, not so much independent in any regard. Being a friend of the Trudeaus since the 70s, Johnson is a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, which has received funding from the Chinese regime multiple times in the past. During his time as the Governor General, he had also been called an “old friend of the Chinese people” by Xi Jinping, a title typically those closely tied to the regime proudly receive. While avoiding a public inquiry itself is already dodgy, appointing such a problematic rapporteur tells Canadians that transparency is never a concern of his government. 

This event should alarm Canadians about the extent to which the Beijing regime has been interfering in Canada’s elections and more importantly, trigger Canadians to thoroughly reflect on Trudeau’s leadership. This is a Prime Minister whose administration has housed more political scandals, all related to his party, than any Canadian administration since 1867. Despite knowing his candidates’ involvement in the Chinese interfering network, he consciously left Canada’s democracy in jeopardy. Furthermore, he has repeated his disrespect for freedom-loving Canadians and Chinese communities who have been threatened and suppressed by the Beijing dictatorship. Moreover, he has stood against government transparency possibly for the benefit of his own political career. 

At the end of the day, whatever the rapporteur “rapports”, one thing is clear: Trudeau must go.