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.
00:00:44.240It's someone who's going to appoint, report back to the Prime Minister.
00:00:48.660And then what he has also announced is that NSACOP, which is a committee comprised of
00:00:58.260members of Parliament and senators, but that is not a parliamentary committee, that does
00:01:03.720not have the powers of parliamentary committees, including compelling witnesses, that meets in
00:01:09.660secret and that prepares a report that is redacted by the PMO to be tasked with getting to the bottom
00:01:19.420of Beijing's interference. It is a complete smokescreen. It is the opposite of what CSIS has called on the
00:01:31.660Prime Minister to do in the face of interference, and that is to provide sunshine and transparency.
00:01:37.800What he wants to do is bury it in a committee that meets behind closed doors, and that, again,
00:01:44.980significantly, that it is the PMO that ultimately redacts the report, even though I would submit,
00:01:51.740given what we know, the Prime Minister is in a conflict in this matter. There are real questions
00:01:56.400questions about what he knew, when he knew it, and what he failed to do in the face of Beijing's
00:02:04.120interference in the last two federal elections that took place under his watch as Prime Minister.
00:02:09.700Now, Dustin Trudeau could talk about having this special rapporteur all he wants, but if the House of
00:02:17.360Commons votes for a public inquiry, then there will be a public inquiry. Is that not correct?
00:02:24.000Well, it really is up to the government to establish one, and there needs to be a public inquiry. We need
00:02:32.780to get to the bottom of this, but we also need to ensure that the parliamentary committee that is
00:02:39.680tasked with undertaking this study on foreign interference is able to do its job in compelling,
00:02:47.600bringing witnesses to committee to see that relevant documents are produced to the committee,
00:02:53.600and up until now, what we have seen is that the Liberals, with the support of their NDP coalition
00:02:59.700partner, have shielded PMO officials, including the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, who is a key witness
00:03:08.860to getting to the bottom of what the Prime Minister knew, when he knew it, and what he did or didn't do about it.
00:03:14.420And it's especially critical that we hear from Katie Telford, given the scandalous report from Global News,
00:03:24.200that senior PMO officials were briefed by CSIS about Beijing's interference in 2019 and did nothing about it.
00:03:36.540They 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.
00:03:52.180When the PMO officials were informed, they brushed it under the rug, but even worse, potentially, this was reportedly a classified meeting.
00:04:03.500They then reportedly leaked that classified information to that Liberal candidate.
00:04:08.920So 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.
00:04:26.200Yeah, so the committee voted 6-5 to have a public inquiry.
00:04:31.900Will the House itself be voting on whether or not to have a public inquiry?
00:04:36.620Well, we would like the—we're waiting for the chair of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to actually report back to the House.
00:04:45.040The motion called for that to happen, so I would expect that that will happen, and then a concurrence motion could be moved.
00:04:55.860Really, 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.
00:05:08.960It's why, in the motion passed at PROC, which is a non-binding motion, by the way.
00:05:13.700It'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.
00:05:28.760So 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,
00:05:43.060who actually was involved, if you can believe it, in accepting a $200,000 contribution to the Trudeau Foundation from a Beijing communist advisor.
00:05:56.360And 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.
00:06:14.780It should never have happened, and he can't do, get away to do this in the case of a public inquiry.
00:06:19.940So 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?
00:06:29.760Conservatives are calling for the committee to continue.
00:07:02.480Are 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.
00:07:17.960He seems to want to diffuse the focus here.
00:07:24.040Foreign interference by Russia, by Iran, these are all serious issues.
00:07:29.700But here we have very specific allegations, specific revelations based upon CESIS documents that have been reviewed by reputable journalists,
00:07:41.220as well as documents that have been released to our committee about serious interference efforts by Beijing in not one but two elections.
00:07:52.740And so we need to get to the bottom of those very specific allegations, those revelations.
00:07:58.340I shouldn't just say their allegations, because we know it has happened.
00:08:02.740It's a question of to what extent it happened and what did the prime minister know.
00:08:07.020And so to go on having an inquiry with a wide mandate basically buries, potentially, getting to the bottom of these very specific allegations.
00:08:21.400Now, 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.
00:08:33.120I'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.
00:08:46.840And are you concerned that this could be construed as being an attack on Asian Canadians or something like that?
00:08:53.080Is there a reason you're saying Beijing, not China?
00:08:55.340Well, first of all, Chinese Canadians are not responsible for this interference.
00:09:03.160They have nothing to do with this interference.
00:09:05.560What has to do with it is the Beijing Communist Party.
00:09:10.100The Beijing-based Communist Party is responsible for this interference.
00:09:14.240And it's very important to recognize that and the fact that Chinese Canadians are victims of this interference by Beijing.
00:09:25.460So 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.
00:09:38.760And that's, he does this consistently every time he's challenged, he resorts to the racial smears.
00:09:45.300It'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.
00:10:03.820But he was prepared to turn a blind eye so long as such interference benefited the fortunes of the Liberal Party.
00:10:13.980So 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?
00:10:24.440I will be bringing forward a motion tomorrow at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to call on her to appear before the committee.
00:10:35.740The NDP blocked our efforts not once, but three times.
00:10:39.640So tomorrow we'll see what the NDP does.
00:10:45.800They 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.
00:11:00.780But Jagmeet Singh has been quite emphatic about his desire to have a public inquiry in this.
00:11:07.440Do you think this is all posturing on behalf of the NDP?
00:11:13.400But the NDP at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee shielded Katie Telford three times.
00:11:19.820They also have worked hand-in-hand with the Liberals to block the production of relevant documents.
00:11:28.900We want a process of production that leads to as much transparency as possible.
00:11:35.740And 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.
00:11:50.980And so what we have put forward in previous motions is for the parliamentary law clerk who is independent to do the vetting.
00:11:59.700A parliamentary law clerk who is independent, they have a national security clearance to make appropriate redactions having regard for national security issues,
00:12:14.900but at the same time maximizing the amount of transparency as to what the committee can see in the way of documents produced.
00:12:23.120Justin Trudeau has been through an enormous amount of scandal for any prime minister.
00:12:31.880In terms of his professional scandal, he somehow survived the SNE-Lavalin scandal.
00:12:39.940He got through the WE Charity scandal.
00:12:44.040On 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.
00:12:57.420He did it so many times, he did it so many times, and yet still has the gall to call his political opponents racist.
00:13:04.880Do you think this might be the final straw for Justin Trudeau?
00:14:50.920And I'm going to continue to cover this story.
00:14:52.480I'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.
00:15:03.560But we all will be watching with bated breath to see what happens with this.
00:15:11.040So 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.
00:15:26.680Thank you for joining us, Michael, and for David Creighton and the Western Standard.
00:15:31.520We'll be talking to you again soon, I hope.