Western Standard - March 08, 2023


MP Cooper says ＂smokescreen＂ can't hide China election interference

Topics
public inquiry Beijing election interference
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Michael Cooper Katie Telford David Creighton Albert Edmonton Pierre Poilievre Jagmeet Singh Peter Julian
HANNAFORD Unfortunately, Tucker Carlson nailed it Poilievre grills Trudeau

Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

138.02

Word count

2,221

Sentence count

109

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I'm joined by Conservative MP Michael Cooper, who's been on the committee investigating China's interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections, to discuss the lack of a public inquiry, the PM's response to the committee's recommendations, and the need for one.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I'm joined today by Michael Cooper, member of Parliament for St. Albert Edmonton, and
00:00:06.920 he's the leading conservative member, at least in terms of the publicity and the work on
00:00:13.700 the Standing Committee on Procedure on House Affairs, which has been investigating Chinese
00:00:19.680 interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
00:00:24.160 Now, Michael, as I was preparing this interview, the news never stops.
00:00:28.400 I understand that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has said he does not want to public inquire,
00:00:33.900 says he's willing to tolerate something called a special rapporteur.
00:00:41.580 Does anyone even know what that is?
00:00:44.240 It's someone who's going to appoint, report back to the Prime Minister.
00:00:48.660 And then what he has also announced is that NSACOP, which is a committee comprised of
00:00:58.260 members of Parliament and senators, but that is not a parliamentary committee, that does
00:01:03.720 not have the powers of parliamentary committees, including compelling witnesses, that meets in
00:01:09.660 secret and that prepares a report that is redacted by the PMO to be tasked with getting to the bottom
00:01:19.420 of Beijing's interference. It is a complete smokescreen. It is the opposite of what CSIS has called on the
00:01:31.660 Prime Minister to do in the face of interference, and that is to provide sunshine and transparency.
00:01:37.800 What he wants to do is bury it in a committee that meets behind closed doors, and that, again,
00:01:44.980 significantly, that it is the PMO that ultimately redacts the report, even though I would submit,
00:01:51.740 given what we know, the Prime Minister is in a conflict in this matter. There are real questions
00:01:56.400 questions about what he knew, when he knew it, and what he failed to do in the face of Beijing's
00:02:04.120 interference in the last two federal elections that took place under his watch as Prime Minister.
00:02:09.700 Now, Dustin Trudeau could talk about having this special rapporteur all he wants, but if the House of
00:02:17.360 Commons votes for a public inquiry, then there will be a public inquiry. Is that not correct?
00:02:24.000 Well, it really is up to the government to establish one, and there needs to be a public inquiry. We need
00:02:32.780 to get to the bottom of this, but we also need to ensure that the parliamentary committee that is
00:02:39.680 tasked with undertaking this study on foreign interference is able to do its job in compelling,
00:02:47.600 bringing witnesses to committee to see that relevant documents are produced to the committee,
00:02:53.600 and up until now, what we have seen is that the Liberals, with the support of their NDP coalition
00:02:59.700 partner, have shielded PMO officials, including the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, who is a key witness
00:03:08.860 to getting to the bottom of what the Prime Minister knew, when he knew it, and what he did or didn't do about it.
00:03:14.420 And it's especially critical that we hear from Katie Telford, given the scandalous report from Global News,
00:03:24.200 that senior PMO officials were briefed by CSIS about Beijing's interference in 2019 and did nothing about it.
00:03:36.540 They turned a blind eye to Beijing's interference, and that interference more specifically involved support from Beijing's Toronto Consulate to support a Liberal candidate now sitting MP in his nomination.
00:03:52.180 When the PMO officials were informed, they brushed it under the rug, but even worse, potentially, this was reportedly a classified meeting.
00:04:03.500 They then reportedly leaked that classified information to that Liberal candidate.
00:04:08.920 So it's absolutely critical here that we hear from PMO, and up until now, the Prime Minister has obstructed, deflected, and refused to cooperate, and one wonders why.
00:04:26.200 Yeah, so the committee voted 6-5 to have a public inquiry.
00:04:31.900 Will the House itself be voting on whether or not to have a public inquiry?
00:04:36.620 Well, we would like the—we're waiting for the chair of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to actually report back to the House.
00:04:45.040 The motion called for that to happen, so I would expect that that will happen, and then a concurrence motion could be moved.
00:04:53.600 But we need a public inquiry.
00:04:55.860 Really, really, it is critical that we have a public inquiry, but one that isn't decided by the Prime Minister as to who heads that inquiry.
00:05:08.960 It's why, in the motion passed at PROC, which is a non-binding motion, by the way.
00:05:13.700 It's important to emphasize it's a non-binding motion, but it provided for that at the end of the day, whoever heads this inquiry must have the support of all of the recognized parties in the House of Commons.
00:05:28.760 So the Prime Minister can't do what he did with the review of the 2021 election, which was to appoint a friend, the former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation,
00:05:43.060 who actually was involved, if you can believe it, in accepting a $200,000 contribution to the Trudeau Foundation from a Beijing communist advisor.
00:05:56.360 And so someone who, at the very least, had a perceived conflict and may very well have had a real conflict in undertaking a review in an election that is, you know, in which there are a lot of questions about interference by Beijing to help the liberals win.
00:06:14.780 It should never have happened, and he can't do, get away to do this in the case of a public inquiry.
00:06:19.940 So if there is a public inquiry, the work of your committee, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, will continue to investigate as well?
00:06:29.760 Conservatives are calling for the committee to continue.
00:06:32.780 It's imperative that it continue.
00:06:34.980 A public inquiry is one avenue, but it's important to recognize that a public inquiry can take a long time.
00:06:42.220 And it's important that we hear from key witnesses like Katie Telford, not in six months, but now.
00:06:53.060 There are pressing questions that need to be answered, and the only forum where that can happen is at the PROC committee.
00:07:02.120 Yes.
00:07:02.480 Are you concerned that the NDP, not so much the BLOCK, but we've heard Peter Julian make some waves about the public inquiry focusing on Russia and Ukraine.
00:07:17.960 He seems to want to diffuse the focus here.
00:07:20.480 Is that a concern of yours?
00:07:22.980 It is.
00:07:24.040 Foreign interference by Russia, by Iran, these are all serious issues.
00:07:29.700 But here we have very specific allegations, specific revelations based upon CESIS documents that have been reviewed by reputable journalists,
00:07:41.220 as well as documents that have been released to our committee about serious interference efforts by Beijing in not one but two elections.
00:07:52.740 And so we need to get to the bottom of those very specific allegations, those revelations.
00:07:58.340 I shouldn't just say their allegations, because we know it has happened.
00:08:02.740 It's a question of to what extent it happened and what did the prime minister know.
00:08:07.020 And so to go on having an inquiry with a wide mandate basically buries, potentially, getting to the bottom of these very specific allegations.
00:08:19.440 It's why it needs to be targeted.
00:08:21.400 Now, I've noticed you've been very careful, as well as your leader, Pierre Polyev, has been very careful to refer to the political interference as coming from Beijing.
00:08:33.120 I'm curious as to whether this is this is because, you know, Justin Trudeau has a tendency to smear anybody who uses terms like Chinese.
00:08:46.840 And are you concerned that this could be construed as being an attack on Asian Canadians or something like that?
00:08:53.080 Is there a reason you're saying Beijing, not China?
00:08:55.340 Well, first of all, Chinese Canadians are not responsible for this interference.
00:09:03.160 They have nothing to do with this interference.
00:09:05.560 What has to do with it is the Beijing Communist Party.
00:09:10.100 The Beijing-based Communist Party is responsible for this interference.
00:09:14.240 And it's very important to recognize that and the fact that Chinese Canadians are victims of this interference by Beijing.
00:09:25.460 So in a sense, you're intercepting Trudeau's criticism because he's already suggested that if we investigate Chinese interference, it's somehow an attack on Asian Canadians.
00:09:38.760 And that's, he does this consistently every time he's challenged, he resorts to the racial smears.
00:09:45.300 It's part of the Prime Minister's effort to deflect, to blame others, to do everything other than answer basic questions and be held accountable for what I believe is the fact that he turned a blind eye to Beijing's interference in our elections.
00:10:03.820 But he was prepared to turn a blind eye so long as such interference benefited the fortunes of the Liberal Party.
00:10:13.980 So do you anticipate getting Trudeau's Chief of Staff, Katie Telford, in front of your committee, if not in front of a public inquiry, but at least in front of your committee?
00:10:24.440 I will be bringing forward a motion tomorrow at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to call on her to appear before the committee.
00:10:35.740 The NDP blocked our efforts not once, but three times.
00:10:39.640 So tomorrow we'll see what the NDP does.
00:10:44.260 They have a choice.
00:10:45.800 They can join us in working to get to the bottom of Beijing's interference in our elections, or they can do what they have done up until now, and that is do the bidding of the Prime Minister's office.
00:11:00.780 But Jagmeet Singh has been quite emphatic about his desire to have a public inquiry in this.
00:11:07.440 Do you think this is all posturing on behalf of the NDP?
00:11:11.520 We'll see what happens tomorrow.
00:11:13.400 But the NDP at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee shielded Katie Telford three times. 0.62
00:11:19.820 They also have worked hand-in-hand with the Liberals to block the production of relevant documents.
00:11:28.900 We want a process of production that leads to as much transparency as possible.
00:11:35.740 And what we have right now is a production process that allows for significant, significant productions that has resulted in pages and pages of blank pages.
00:11:50.980 And so what we have put forward in previous motions is for the parliamentary law clerk who is independent to do the vetting.
00:11:59.700 A parliamentary law clerk who is independent, they have a national security clearance to make appropriate redactions having regard for national security issues,
00:12:14.900 but at the same time maximizing the amount of transparency as to what the committee can see in the way of documents produced.
00:12:23.120 Justin Trudeau has been through an enormous amount of scandal for any prime minister.
00:12:31.880 In terms of his professional scandal, he somehow survived the SNE-Lavalin scandal.
00:12:39.940 He got through the WE Charity scandal.
00:12:44.040 On a personal level, he somehow managed to get through the Blackface scandal to the point where he couldn't even remember how many times he did Blackface on video and in pictures.
00:12:57.420 He did it so many times, he did it so many times, and yet still has the gall to call his political opponents racist.
00:13:04.880 Do you think this might be the final straw for Justin Trudeau?
00:13:09.180 Can he get through this one?
00:13:11.820 We'll have to see where the evidence takes us.
00:13:15.140 And there are a lot of questions about what the prime minister knew.
00:13:19.920 His national security advisor indicated at the PROC committee, when I pressed her, that he was briefed multiple times.
00:13:30.040 So that begs the question, what did he do about it?
00:13:32.920 And by all indications, he did nothing about it.
00:13:36.760 And that is scandalous.
00:13:39.160 It's scandalous that we have a prime minister who has refused to take this kind of interference by Beijing seriously.
00:13:47.760 And so he needs to be held accountable.
00:13:52.300 And we need to get answers.
00:13:54.180 And that process continues tomorrow with the motion that I will be bringing forward for essentially the fourth time.
00:14:02.660 Hopefully the NDP will join us in getting some of that transparency that Canadians deserve.
00:14:10.020 Yeah, that's excellent.
00:14:11.860 I just wanted to read you a couple of comments.
00:14:14.040 Our Western Standard readers are completely compelled with the story and with the work you're doing on this story.
00:14:23.280 And one of the readers notes here, I have never noticed Michael Cooper till now.
00:14:29.100 I definitely want to shake his hand.
00:14:31.500 And he says, thank you for your hard work.
00:14:35.960 Another reader says, call an election and put them all in jail.
00:14:41.620 And we have been getting like literally hundreds of responses.
00:14:45.380 Your work has been noticed, Michael.
00:14:47.420 I think you're doing a fantastic job.
00:14:50.920 And I'm going to continue to cover this story.
00:14:52.480 I've covered Justin Trudeau for most of his professional life, largely as a columnist, but for five years for a U.S. publication that could never understand why Canadians put him in the highest office.
00:15:03.560 But we all will be watching with bated breath to see what happens with this.
00:15:11.040 So I'd like to thank you, Michael Cooper, conservative member of parliament from Edmonton, St. Albert, leading member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which is looking in the Chinese interference in Canadian elections.
00:15:26.680 Thank you for joining us, Michael, and for David Creighton and the Western Standard.
00:15:31.520 We'll be talking to you again soon, I hope.
00:15:33.960 Thank you, David.
00:15:35.480 Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
00:15:37.480 Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.
00:15:42.020 These guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.
00:15:49.700 And more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.
00:15:54.840 To become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.
00:15:59.860 You can become a Western Standard member for just $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited access.