00:00:00.000The Prime Minister said repeatedly that he had no knowledge of funds from the dictatorship in Beijing going to federal election candidates.
00:00:15.400His department prepared a briefing that said a large clandestine transfer of funds earmarked for the federal election from the PRC in Toronto
00:00:23.800was transferred to an elected provincial government official via a staff member of a 2019 federal candidate.
00:00:31.060Why did the Prime Minister say the opposite of what he knew to be true?
00:00:34.940The issue of foreign interference in our democracies and our institutions is extraordinarily serious.
00:00:45.580And that's why, as a government, we have always taken it incredibly seriously,
00:00:49.740including by building and creating new mechanisms to oversee and to ensure that we can counter that interference
00:00:57.320and demonstrate to Canadians that they can have confidence in their institutions.
00:01:01.700But on the specific question, as both myself and the NSIA stated last fall,
00:01:06.840we have no information on any federal candidates receiving money from China, and that continues to remain the case.