Debates of May 31st, 2023

Public Safety

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition knows full well that the RCMP is conducting investigations and taking action against these illegal acts in Canada.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister admitted that there were police stations. His government said that all these stations had been shut down. We found out that is not true, that at least two were still operating and that his government had given taxpayer money for those police stations. I will ask my question for the third time: How many police stations is Beijing operating here in Canada? How many?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the RCMP has been tasked with conducting the necessary investigations and laying charges in due course against those attempting to interfere in our democracy. If the Leader of the Opposition is so curious about the details of foreign interference, then he should accept the briefing that has been offered to him by the intelligence services. Then he would no longer not know the details and he could learn about the serious issue of foreign interference. I encourage the Leader of the Opposition to get informed.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, the number of police stations controlled by a foreign dictatorship in Canada is not a detail. It would not be a detail if any government had foreign police stations operating on our soil.

Second of all, all Canadians deserve to know the answer. The government claimed that it had shut down all these police stations. Now we know that there are two in operation and that the Prime Minister's government has given taxpayer money to help fund them.

My simple question is this: How many of Beijing's police stations are operating on Canadian soil today?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as Canadians well know, the government takes extremely seriously the issue of foreign interference and has done so since 2015, when we brought in significant measures to counter foreign interference. We continue to do so. The RCMP is quite rightly charged with the responsibility for investigating and following up on these reports of Beijing-funded police stations but, indeed, if the Leader of the Opposition is so—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I must interrupt the right hon. Prime Minister.

I just want to remind everyone of this: The way it works is that you ask a question and then you listen to the answer, whether you like it or not. You cannot keep asking the question over and over again while the person is speaking. I wanted to point that out.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition continues to have questions on foreign interference, as many Canadians do, I would suggest that he actually take our security agencies up on the offer they have made to him of being briefed on all the intelligence related to foreign interference. That way, he does not have to hide behind, to quote the report on this, “a veil of ignorance”, and he can actually work from the facts.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister can brief all Canadians right now. These are police stations that exist to harass and intimidate Canadian citizens on Canadian soil. No real country would allow a foreign dictatorship to run police stations on its soil. The Americans are arresting Beijing's agents in their country.

I will give the Prime Minister the chance to answer the question one last time. How many police stations are being operated by Beijing on Canadian soil?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition were to take this issue of foreign interference seriously as an issue facing diaspora communities and Chinese Canadians, he would be interested in actually understanding the facts around foreign interference. Instead, he chooses to play partisan games. He chooses to make personal attacks against a former governor general instead of actually accepting the need to take this issue seriously. He knows full well that the RCMP's responsibility is to do these investigations and make arrests, and they are actually following up on that.

Democratic Institutions

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canada no longer has a government worthy of being called democratic.

This Prime Minister refuses to clear up any doubts about his desire to protect secrets that we are only just starting to uncover.

Let us ask the people of Xinjiang how China's dictatorship operates. Let us ask the people of Hong Kong how China operates. Let us ask the Tibetans how the Chinese Communist Party operates. Let us ask the bullied MPs how Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, operates.

Should the Prime Minister not get his act together before going down in history as pandering to a hostile foreign power?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, like the leader of the Conservative Party, the leader of the Bloc Québécois is choosing not to look at the facts. He is choosing not to consult the information at his disposal.

We may not agree on the best way to defend our democracy, but we cannot disagree on facts. He is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.

That is why we offered him a briefing on confidential information, but he refused. He prefers to make uninformed attacks rather than understanding the real facts in order to take this issue seriously.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is encouraging an insidious culture of secrecy; China is too.

David Johnston is making a game out of hiding secrets from Canadians and Quebeckers, like China would. The Liberals' entire strategy is now obvious: to divert attention from the close ties between Liberal power brokers and China, possibly even to protect the interests of investor friends in China by devising a strategy for accessing secret documents that keeps them secret.

It is not up to David Johnston to determine what I can or cannot see. It is not about me. An independent judge will set the terms of reference of a public inquiry.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we just heard directly from the Bloc Québécois leader that he is choosing not to learn the facts.

He complains about a culture of secrecy. He feels frustrated at the confidential information that our security agencies—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am sorry to interrupt. I am going to ask the hon. member for Red Deer—Lacombe to keep it down, and many others as well.

I will ask the hon. Prime Minister to start over again.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois leader is complaining in an extremely partisan manner about a culture of secrecy. As he is well aware, the fact is that our security intelligence agencies must operate in different ways to protect Canadians, especially when it comes to a foreign force like China.

He is choosing to remain in the dark. He refuses to accept the confidential information we are prepared to share with him so that he can contribute to this debate in a sensible and responsible way in the House—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I am sorry, but there is a discussion going on in the background. If members want to have a conversation, I invite them to go into the lobby or anywhere else. All I ask is that members not shout back and forth, as this should not happen in a Parliament.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, like the Conservative Party leader, the leader of the Bloc Québécois would rather hide behind a veil of ignorance than understand the impact of the situation.

Obviously, he is just playing partisan games. We take the matter of foreign interference seriously and we hope that others will too.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Dan Stanton, a former CSIS counter-intelligence officer, testified in committee. He said that a public inquiry into foreign interference is necessary. He, like many Canadians, is wondering what is going on. He said very clearly that there are safeguards that can be put in place to protect sensitive information. I agree with Mr. Stanton.

Will the Prime Minister do the right thing? Will he listen to Canadians, listen to this House and listen to a former CSIS counter-intelligence officer and vote in favour of our motion calling for a public inquiry?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I will do one better than a former CSIS agent. Current leadership across our intelligence agencies and across the public service continues to say that the best way to move forward is not with a public inquiry, which would have to happen behind closed doors. Many who testified at committees expressed that perspective. To remove it from the political realm, we asked an unimpeachable man of integrity, a former governor general selected by Stephen Harper, to look into these matters deeply and to make a determination as to whether a public inquiry was the right mechanism. He said—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

The hon. member for Burnaby South.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is not restoring confidence with the decisions he is making. We need confidence restored.

What will it take for the government to see reason? Last week, we learned that the special rapporteur's key legal adviser is a long-time Liberal donor. Is that this government's definition of ethics?

This afternoon, the Prime Minister can do the right thing and put the country's interests before his own personal interests. He can vote in favour of our motion to launch a public inquiry. Will he do that?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, foreign interference is an extremely serious, fundamental issue for our democracy and our institutions.

That is why we implemented a number of measures, including committees of parliamentarians, expert committees, such as the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, a process during the election campaign and an independent expert responsible for assessing everything that we are doing and making recommendations. He found that the 2019 and 2021 elections were not compromised and he will continue his work.

Public Safety

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, a real prime minister would never allow a foreign dictatorship to have police stations on our soil. The Prime Minister has known for at least six months that Beijing has these police stations here. I will ask him the following question.

How many agents of Beijing have been arrested here in Canada because of these active police stations here in Canada? In the United States, several such agents have already been arrested.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition knows full well that it is not up to the police officers to direct the police in their operations. However, we have ensured that the RCMP is following up and investigating this foreign interference and these Chinese police stations.

In the meantime, the leader of the Conservative Party chooses to remain ignorant and refuses to accept briefings on the facts in the matter of Chinese interference. He made that choice because he wants to continue to make unfounded partisan attacks.