O'Toole says CSIS told him he was targeted by Beijing during 2021 election
CBC
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says Canada's spy agency told him he has been an ongoing target of a Chinese government campaign of misinformation and "voter suppression" that covered the last federal election campaign.
Rising on a question of privilege in the House of Commons on Tuesday, O'Toole said he received a briefing from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on Friday.
The Ontario MP said he was informed that Beijing has been targeting him for "years."
"The CSIS briefing confirmed to me what I suspected for quite some time. That my parliamentary caucus and myself were the target of a sophisticated misinformation and voter suppression campaign orchestrated by the People's Republic of China," O'Toole told the House.
O'Toole said Beijing's campaign spread misinformation and used social media — specifically the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat — to amplify that misinformation.
The former Conservative leader criticized the government for not alerting him or his party to these issues at the time, something he called a violation of his parliamentary privilege.
"They are being willfully blind to attacks on our Parliamentary democracy," O'Toole said.
O'Toole also criticized the federal task force struck to help safeguard the integrity of the 2021 election. A report reviewing that task force's work was released in February.
While the report said interference didn't affect the outcome of the 2021 vote, it did recommend that the government lower the threshold for when the task force can alert the public to potential interference attempts.
O'Toole — who is leaving federal politics once the House rises next month — said he likely will remain a target of Beijing once he steps down.
On Monday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan said she received a similar briefing from CSIS last week.
Kwan told reporters Monday that CSIS said she is an "evergreen" target for Beijing. Both O'Toole and Kwan said China's government is singling them out over their vocal support for democracy in Hong Kong and for religious and cultural minorities in China.
"I will continue this fight, to bring this message to the House of Commons," Kwan said Monday.
David Johnston, the federal government's special rapporteur on foreign interference, said in his recent interim report that intelligence indicates Beijing was seeking information about Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives.
