Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I move:
That, given further media reports from Global News, revealing additional shocking revelations regarding Beijing’s strategy to interfere and influence Canada’s democratic institutions, the Committee, in relation to its study of foreign interference in elections,
(a) hold a third meeting during each House sitting week to accommodate this study, in addition to its meetings concerning its orders of reference related to the Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act;
(b) hold at least three meetings, each two hours in length, dedicated to this study, on each House adjournment week;
(c) invite Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, to appear alone for two hours by herself, within two weeks of the adoption of this motion, provided that she be sworn or affirmed;
(d) invite Jeremy Broadhurst, Liberal Party of Canada Campaign Director for the 2019 general election;
(e) invite Morris Rosenberg, author of the independent assessment of the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP) for the 2021 general election, as mandated by the Cabinet Directive on the CEIPP; and
(f) order the production of all memoranda, briefing notes, e-mails, records of conversations, and any other relevant documents, including any drafts, which are in the possession of any government department or agency, including the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, the CEIPP, any Minister's Office, and the Prime Minister's Office, containing information concerning the efforts by, or on behalf of, foreign governments or other foreign state actors to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 general elections, including the documents which were quoted in the various Globe and Mail and Global News reports on this subject-matter and, for greater certainty, those regarding Canadian Security Intelligence Service warnings to “senior Liberal Party staff” in September 2019 regarding Beijing's foreign interference in the Liberal nomination for the riding of Don Valley North, provided that
(i) these documents be deposited without redaction with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, in both official languages and within three weeks of the adoption of this order,
(ii) a copy of the documents shall also be deposited with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, in both official languages, within three weeks of the adoption of this Order, with any proposed redaction of information which, in the government's opinion, could reasonably be expected to compromise the identities of employees or sources or intelligence-collecting methods of Canadian or allied intelligence agencies,
(iii) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall promptly notify the Committee whether the Office is satisfied that the documents were produced as ordered, and, if not, the Chair shall be instructed to present forthwith, on behalf of the Committee, a report to the House outlining the material facts of the situation,
(iv) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall assess the redactions proposed by the government, pursuant to subparagraph (ii), to determine whether the Office agrees that the proposed redactions conform with the criteria set out in subparagraph (ii) and
(A) if it agrees, it shall provide the documents, as redacted by the government pursuant to subparagraph (ii), to the Clerk of the Committee, or
(B) if it disagrees with some or all of the proposed redactions, it shall provide a copy of the documents, redacted in the manner the Office determines would conform with the criteria set out in paragraph (ii), together with a report indicating the number, extent and nature of the government's proposed redactions which were disagreed with, to the Clerk of the Committee, and
(v) the Clerk of the Committee shall cause the documents, provided by the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel pursuant to subparagraph (iv), to be distributed to the members of the Committee and to be published on the Committee's website forthwith upon receipt.
Madam Chair, I bring this motion forward given last Friday's Global News report by Sam Cooper, revealing additional shocking revelations about Beijing's interference in our democracy.
Given Global News reports that senior staff in the Prime Minister's Office were briefed about this interference and did nothing about it, it is all the more important that the Prime Minister's chief of staff Katie Telford testify before this committee, which this motion demands.
As we seek to get to the bottom of alarming reports of interference by Beijing in the 2019 and 2021 elections, let me say at the outset what this is not about. This is not about Chinese Canadians who are, first and foremost, the victims of Beijing's interference activities.
What this is about is that under this Prime Minister's watch, there has been reportedly, based on a review of CSIS documents by Global News and The Globe and Mail, what has been characterized by both Global News and The Globe and Mail as a vast and sophisticated campaign of interference by Beijing in not one but two elections—again, under this Prime Minister's watch. Above all else, what this scandal is about is what the Prime Minister knows about this interference, when he first learned about it and what he did about it or failed to do about it.
So far, Madam Chair, there is absolutely no evidence that the Prime Minister has done anything meaningful in response to Beijing's interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. By all indications, he has instead turned a blind eye to this interference in our elections and in our democracy.
CSIS advised the Prime Minister, including in a January 21, 2021, briefing, that the policy of the government in response to foreign interference be grounded in sunlight and transparency. In response to these troubling reports of election interference, the Prime Minister has done exactly the opposite of what CSIS advised. Instead of providing sunlight and transparency, the Prime Minister has refused to answer basic questions about what he knows.
Following the November 7 Global News report by Sam Cooper of a vast campaign of interference by the Chinese Communist regime in the 2019 election that, among other things, involved 11 candidates, the Prime Minister, following that, was silent for two weeks. He said nothing. Then, using carefully crafted language, he tried to mislead the Canadian public by saying that he was not briefed about candidates who received money from China, as if Beijing wrote a cheque to 11 candidates. No one alleged such a thing. Such a thing, on its face, is absurd.
If there's anything that's transparent about this Prime Minister, that was a transparent attempt on the part of the Prime Minister to hide, to misdirect, to cover up and to mislead the Canadian public about what he knows. When he was called out on that, the Prime Minister, despite repeated questions about whether he was briefed and what he knows, never provided a clear answer.
Following The Globe and Mail's recent report by Robert Fife and Steven Chase about Beijing's interference in the 2021 election, instead of being transparent about what he knows and instead of expressing concern about this reported interference, the Prime Minister's response was to shamefully go after whistle-blowers at CSIS for possibly shining a light and making the public aware of Beijing's interference, something that CSIS precisely advised the Prime Minister—transparency, shining a light, making the public aware. Yet he went after whistle-blowers.
He even went so far as to outrageously insinuate that those of us on this committee and others who want to get to the bottom of Beijing's election interference are somehow undermining democracy. I say that a prime minister who misleads, misdirects and covers up election interference is the one who is undermining democracy, not those who want to get to the bottom of foreign interference by Beijing.
He smugly attacked the accuracy of the Globe and Mail report of Robert Fife and Steven Chase, both well-respected journalists, only to backtrack the very next day and say that he was somehow misunderstood. The Prime Minister's non-answers, his repeated evasions and his attacks on whistle-blowers are not the actions of a transparent prime minister. They are not the actions of a prime minister who is interested in getting to the bottom of Beijing's interference. They are the actions of a prime minister who has failed to act, who turned a blind eye, and who is now trying to cover it up.
The need for the Prime Minister to come clean and tell Canadians what he knows is underscored by the shocking Global News report by Sam Cooper that was reported last Friday. In that report, it was stated that CSIS warned “senior aides from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office” that a Liberal candidate in the 2019 election—now a sitting Liberal MP—was assisted by Beijing's Toronto consulate in his nomination campaign.
Instead of taking the warnings of CSIS seriously, they—“they” being the senior aides in the Prime Minister's Office—did nothing about it. They turned a blind eye. When the Prime Minister was asked just an hour or two ago whether he had been informed and whether he had been briefed about CSIS's warning that a Liberal candidate, now a sitting Liberal MP, was assisted by Beijing's Toronto consulate in his nomination campaign, he refused to answer. He misdirected again. He tried to change the subject. He tried to attack those who were demanding answers and who were seeking to get to the bottom of this interference.
Again, these are the conduct and the actions of a prime minister who is not transparent. They are the actions and conduct of a prime minister who has something to hide and who has a lot to answer for.
Given the seriousness involving these latest allegations reported by Global News, it is imperative that, at the very least, the Prime Minister's top aide and the most powerful unelected official in government, his chief of staff Katie Telford, appear before this committee. The Prime Minister said in 2015 that, when you're talking to Katie Telford or Gerald Butts, it is like you're talking to him. This is someone who is a critical witness in terms of getting to the bottom of what I again stress is the heart of the scandal.
What did the Prime Minister know, when did he know it and what did he do about it or fail to do about it with respect to Beijing's interference in two elections, the 2019 election and the 2021 election, under his watch as Prime Minister?
Ms. Telford needs to come clean and tell this committee and tell Canadians about what she knows about this CSIS briefing; explain why senior PMO staff turned a blind eye to CSIS warnings about Beijing's interference in our democracy; and explain why she may be one of those senior PMO staff who turned a blind eye. We need to know.
For this committee to be able to do its work to get to the bottom of Beijing's interference, we need to see the production of relevant documents. The production process so far has been inept. At this committee's meeting last week, I highlighted the inadequacy of this, showing that we have received pages and pages of production that are blank pages. That's why I put forward a motion that the parliamentary law clerk, who is independent, undertake redactions having regard for national security considerations.
That motion was gutted last week by the Liberals. Why was it gutted? It was because, almost certainly doing the bidding of the Prime Minister's Office, the Liberals didn't want transparency. The Liberals were quite content to see pages and pages of blank pages. The Liberals wanted to do the redacting themselves, even though it's this Prime Minister who is implicated, along with his staff, in this interference scandal.
They, the Liberals, didn't trust, and don't trust, the parliamentary law clerk, because, again, they're not interested in getting to the bottom of what happened. They're interested in seeing the Prime Minister's inaction and what he knows covered up.
This motion does provide, once again, that the independent parliamentary law clerk undertake the redactions. That would ensure that national security considerations are protected while at the same time providing as much transparency as possible so that this committee can do its work.
With that, I'm hopeful that the Liberal members opposite will stop doing the bidding of this Prime Minister and his PMO and do what is right in shining a light on Beijing's interference in our elections. That starts with not shielding but bringing to committee PMO officials like the Prime Minister's chief of staff and seeing an independent and transparent production process.
Thank you, Madam Chair.