Juno News - Canadians deserve more information on Chinese interference allegations

In this episode, I talk about what a maximal disclosure policy would look like, and why politicians need to get on board with it. I also talk about why a public inquiry into election interference by the Chinese regime is a bad idea.

00:00:00.000 When it comes to all the reports that the Beijing Communist regime has attempted to

00:00:04.300 interfere in Canada's elections on multiple levels now, it's pretty clear that most Canadians want

00:00:10.040 more information, more disclosure, not less, despite the fact that Prime Minister Justin

00:00:15.740 Trudeau is saying no, we will not have a public inquiry into this, despite all the demands for

00:00:20.700 such an inquiry. But what would a policy of maximal disclosure look like? What does it mean

00:00:26.400 to seek more information? Where do we get it from? Well, I think one great example of a politician

00:00:31.380 who's being pretty responsible on this file is British Columbia NDP Premier David Eby. He recently

00:00:37.580 said that he's very concerned, troubled by the issue, and what he wants is a full briefing from

00:00:43.360 CSIS on the matter, and to talk about what issues the BC legislature could potentially do to close

00:00:49.340 any gaps of concern. He acknowledges that election interference is primarily a federal concern, but

00:00:54.400 wants to know, is there anything I should be doing or could be doing on this file? I found Eby's

00:00:59.540 response very refreshing, because a lot of politicians, they just want to use this as a spin

00:01:04.640 opportunity. Now, we've got Conservative leader Pierre Pagliav being very strong on this file,

00:01:08.980 asking for more information to be disclosed. He's in opposition. Eby, though, is in government,

00:01:13.820 and potentially, because we have seen election interference spans now all levels of government,

00:01:18.380 municipal, provincial, federal, it's going coast to coast, we're talking about the GTA,

00:01:22.140 we're talking about Vancouver. Potentially, things could get difficult for Eby and for

00:01:27.260 the British Columbia NDP. I have no evidence to that fact. I'm just saying, because of how

00:01:31.140 wide-spanning it is, maybe they would see themselves slightly ensnared in all of this.

00:01:35.340 But Eby says, maximal disclosure, I want a briefing from CSIS. And there we go. I think that's a good

00:01:41.660 position for every politician to have. Just say, give me all the information. Tell me everything

00:01:47.540 you've got. I want to learn more. And I wish every politician all across Canada had that perspective

00:01:54.060 right now. There are some people who are saying the allegations against them are over the top,

00:01:59.100 they're not accurate, and then they're saying these are insinuations, they're against them. Okay,

00:02:03.420 well, just whatever it is, put all the information on the table, and then you can give us your response

00:02:07.980 as to why you feel what's being reported in CSIS documents is inaccurate, and we figure it out that

00:02:13.720 way. But this idea of, no, let's not have the inquiry, or let's shut things down, let's just

00:02:18.280 call these insinuations and call them false. No, we need more information, and the more information

00:02:23.440 we get, the more we can separate what's actually going on, what's the truth, what's misleading,

00:02:28.740 and get to the bottom of it. Because that's what people want right now. We're hearing former

00:02:33.400 diplomats, senior academics, people from all different political parties, non-partisan individuals,

00:02:39.040 they're just saying, let's get more information, let's get to the bottom of it. And that is the

00:02:44.660 path that we should be using to proceed.

Juno News - March 19, 2023

Canadians deserve more information on Chinese interference allegations

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