‘Urgent’ to fix gaps in foreign interference defences before next election: Mendicino
Global News
Testimony at House of Commons' probe into allegations of China’s foreign influence campaigns flags issues with Canada’s elections safeguards.
It is “urgent” to fix gaps in Canada’s defences against foreign interference before the next federal election, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told MPs on Thursday.
Mendicino told a House of Commons committee Wednesday that “we need to study very carefully” concerns about how Canada’s security and intelligence community handles foreign intervention in elections.
Mendicino was responding to earlier testimony before the committee, which is investigating allegations of Chinese foreign interference operations in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections. Fred DeLorey, the Conservatives’ 2021 national campaign director, told the committee on Tuesday that when it came to his party interacting with intelligence agencies on foreign interference issues, it felt like a “one-way street” – with party officials raising concerns and not getting “necessarily anything back.”
Asked about those comments, Mendicino pointed to a government report released earlier in April that recommended significant changes to how the Canadian government addresses foreign interference operations – including during election periods.
“It is urgent, yes. But there are tangible recommendations that we can now use,” Mendicino said.
Mendicino did not offer a timeline for implementing those recommendations or fixing the perceived “gaps,” and didn’t elaborate on what legislative fixes he would prioritize. But he urged MPs to “work together as parliamentarians … to confront this threat in the complex and ever-evolving international landscape.”
That spirit of cross-partisanship did not last long into Thursday’s meeting.
The Opposition Conservatives used their time to ask – repeatedly – why the Liberal government has not expelled Chinese diplomats in the wake of allegations the Chinese government had established covert “police stations” on Canadian soil.