Juno News - November 29, 2022
Pierre Poilievre and Justin Trudeau spar over Chinese election interference allegations
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Summary
The Prime Minister says there was no interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections, but the Opposition leader won t answer the question: Did the government ever tell the Prime Minister of China's interference in our elections? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says no, and the independent committee investigating the matter has concluded that no such interference occurred.
Transcript
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Do our security services and our officials, or our police officers, did they ever inform
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the Prime Minister of Beijing's interference in our elections, yes or no, the right Honourable
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As I've said many times, Mr. Speaker, our security and intelligence services and police
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take the importance of fighting against foreign interference very seriously, including Chinese
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But I can assure the member and all Canadians that in the 2019 and 2021 elections, there
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was no foreign interference in a way that would have changed any of the results in any
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The Prime Minister has used words to obscure the answer.
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He says there was not interference in a significant way that would have changed the outcome.
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As our intelligence services have highlighted many times in many different forms for Canadians,
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and Canadians' affairs by foreign powers is an ongoing thing, whether it's cyber interference,
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whether it's interference with communities here in Canada, whether it's attempts to influence
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These are things that go on on an ongoing basis and things that our intelligence agencies and
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police agencies work very, very hard to counter.
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But Canadians can be reassured that the integrity of our elections was not compromised.
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The question was specifically about whether intelligence, law enforcement, or public servants
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briefed him or in any way informed him of any interference in any of our elections.
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Mr. Speaker, back in 2019, we established a nonpartisan, independent group of top civil
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servants and intelligence officials to ensure that the integrity of our elections would
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They watched and reported in the 2019 election, they watched and reported for the 2021 election,
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and in both cases confirmed that the integrity of our elections was not compromised.
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The question was not whether the election was compromised.
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The question was whether officials in intelligence, law enforcement or the public service at any
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time, informed the Prime Minister of allegations of any interference in our elections?
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Mr. Speaker, the Member Opposite brought in the element of allegations of interference.
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I can confirm, based on the news reports that a number of people have been remarking
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on for the past number of weeks, that I have never gotten any information from any of our
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security agencies or police officers or intelligence officials or public servants on any information
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on anyone receiving, as a federal candidate, receiving money from China, as the allegations highlighted.
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The question wasn't whether or not he heard allegations of money going to a candidate from
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Obviously, money doesn't travel on a big ship from the other side of the Pacific and then
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go to the shore and then be delivered to a candidate.
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The question is whether or not the Prime Minister ever got information from the public service,
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the police or intelligence bodies on any interference of any kind by Beijing.
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Mr. Speaker, I got a report back from our panel that was established, the experts established
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in the national security agencies to report back on whether or not our elections were subject
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to foreign interference, and they confirmed that the elections were held in full integrity.
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The Canadians can have full confidence in the integrity of our elections in 2019 and 2021.