'Seeming like there's something to hide,' Singh says of Trudeau as foreign interference controversy deepens
CTV
Questions over interference by China in Canada's last two federal elections continue to rise in Ottawa, as do the accusations the Liberals aren't doing enough to answer them, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau digs in, declining to offer details about what he knew and when.
Questions over interference by China in Canada's last two federal elections continue to rise in Ottawa, as do the accusations the Liberals aren't doing enough to answer them, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau digs in, declining to offer any details about what he knew and when.
"To be quite honest, I know that no matter what I say, Canadians continue to have questions about what we did and what we didn’t," Trudeau said Wednesday amid a barrage of questions from reporters.
The prime minister said that Canadians' persisting concerns—regardless of his attempts to assure that the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 elections were not compromised by Chinese efforts to influence the outcome—are precisely why he's moving to appoint a special rapporteur and tap a pair of closed-door national security bodies to investigate.
Opposition party leaders aren’t buying this line from Trudeau, and feel it's the prime minister's responsibility to answer the questions being raised.
"The prime minister is signalling that he's not taking this seriously, and … is being dismissive. And in his actions also is more and more seeming like there's something to hide, all of which is not helping," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters. "It's not helping Canadians have confidence in our democracy, in our electoral system, and it's why it really cries out for a public inquiry. Let's set those questions put to rest … Let's figure out what happened, and what we can do to protect democracy in the future."
The latest round of questions were sparked by new reporting from Global News alleging Trudeau and top officials were briefed on efforts by Beijing to "covertly" fund election candidates, despite the prime minister's past suggestions to the contrary. The reporting cites anonymous intelligence officials and unreleased "high-level" memos, which CTV News has not independently verified.
Seizing on the latest development during question period, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked why Trudeau continues to say one thing while the reporting suggests another—taking a more prosecutorial approach with the prime minister up to take every question as he does on Wednesdays.
