Trudeau denied receiving briefings on Chinese targeting of Conservative MPs

The Canadian Press / Patrick Doyle and The Canadian Press / Ethan Cairns

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received repeated warnings about Chinese agents targeting Conservative MPs, according to David Vigneault, Canada’s spy chief.

“It is indeed something I communicated,” Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), testified under oath at the Foreign Interference Commission.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the director disclosed memos on Chinese interference to Trudeau and his staff, which he later authenticated at the inquiry.

A February 21, 2023 memo Briefing To The Prime Minister’s Office On Foreign Interference Threats stated Chinese agents “were almost certainly motivated by a perception the Conservative Party of Canada was promoting a platform that was perceived to be anti-China.” 

It also claimed that 2021 election irregularities tried “discouraging Canadians, particularly of Chinese heritage, from supporting the Conservative Party, leader Erin O’Toole and Steveston-Richmond East candidate Kenny Chiu.”

At the Commission on Foreign Interference, Trudeau testified to receiving national security memos by word of mouth. He claimed to have never read any documents.

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From September 9 through 12, several WeChat news accounts peddled the false narrative that O’Toole “wants to break off relations with China.”

Notably, Chinese proxies targeted Conservative incumbents like Chiu for supporting a foreign registry. 

An earlier secret memo dated October 26, 2022 again named Chiu as a target of a clandestine campaign. “People’s Republic of China officials could be emboldened in their electoral interference efforts by the 2021 defeat of former Richmond MP Kenny Chiu,” said the memo.

However, Intelligence officials could not prove the presence of a clandestine campaign at the time of the election.

“We know the People’s Republic of China clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections,” said the Briefing To The Prime Minister’s Office. Vigneault used similar language with Trudeau and political aides, according to his testimony.

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“Is this knowledge something you or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as a body communicated to the Prime Minister?” asked Gib van Ert, counsel for Conservative MP Michael Chong. “It is indeed something I communicated,” replied Vigneault.

“Those words were chosen with intention?” asked Thomas Jarmyn, counsel for Erin O’Toole. “Yes, these words are carefully selected,” replied Vigneault.

On April 2, Commission lawyers learned the Security and Intelligence Threat to Elections Task Force (SITE) possessed intelligence on Chinese influence campaigns aimed to elect sympathetic Liberal members of Parliament.

O’Toole said the task force gave the impression “there were no concerns about foreign interference.”

Neither security agents nor Liberal-appointed election monitors ever warned Opposition MPs that foreign agents targeted them.

As late May 3, 2023, Trudeau denied ever being told of Chinese interference against any MPs. “The Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew about certain things but didn’t feel it reached a threshold that required them to pass it up out of CSIS,” Trudeau told reporters at the time.

“Was it briefed up out of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service? It was not,” Trudeau said. “CSIS made the determination it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern.”