Western Standard - November 30, 2022


Poilievre and Blanchet team up against Trudeau over Chinese electoral interference


Episode Stats

Length

2 minutes

Words per Minute

127.04309

Word Count

285

Sentence Count

15


Summary

Learn English with Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau answers a question from a member of the opposition on whether there was any interference in our elections by foreign powers. Justin Trudeau: "Canadians can be reassured that the integrity of our elections was not compromised."


Transcript

00:00:00.000 As I've said many times, Mr. Speaker, our security and intelligence services and police take the importance of fighting against foreign interference very seriously, including Chinese interference.
00:00:12.540 But I can assure the member and all Canadians that in the 2019 and 2021 elections, there was no foreign interference in a way that would have changed any of the results in any significant way.
00:00:29.360 That's what the Independent Committee found.
00:00:32.820 The right-on-law, Leader of the Opposition.
00:00:35.180 The Speaker has used words to obscure the answer.
00:00:40.340 He says there was not interference in a significant way that would have changed the outcome.
00:00:46.760 Was there any interference of any kind?
00:00:49.540 As our intelligence services have highlighted many times in many different forms for Canadians, interference in Canadian affairs by foreign powers is an ongoing thing.
00:01:01.120 Whether it's cyber interference, whether it's interference with communities here in Canada, whether it's attempts to influence the media,
00:01:08.660 these are things that go on on an ongoing basis and things that our intelligence agencies and police agencies work very, very hard to counter.
00:01:20.460 But Canadians can be reassured that the integrity of our elections was not compromised.
00:01:25.080 He still won't answer the question.
00:01:26.900 The question was specifically about whether intelligence, law enforcement or public servants briefed him or in any way informed him of any interference in any of our elections.
00:01:43.720 Mr. Speaker, back in 2019, we established a nonpartisan, independent group of top civil servants and intelligence officials
00:01:56.880 to ensure that the integrity of our elections would not be compromised.
00:02:02.140 They watched and reported in the 2019 election, they watched and reported for the 2021 election,
00:02:08.580 and in both cases confirmed that the integrity of our elections was not compromised.