Trudeau in Liberal damage control mode over foreign influence!

Justin Trudeau’s selective amnesia as he unveiled a package of measures to address foreign interference induced a sense of déjà vu, conjuring up all the other times he’s forgotten his previous viewpoint.

When revelations about Chinese interference in Canadian elections emerged, the prime minister downplayed the reports, saying Beijing’s attempts were “not a new phenomenon.”

He then tried to play the man, not the puck, by saying leaked intelligence documents contained “many inaccuracies,” adding he was concerned that CSIS needed to “keep their secrets and function as a responsible agency.”

One of his MPs said the opposition was engaged in “Trump-like tactics” by questioning past election results. The prime minister followed up by suggesting it was racist to question whether Liberal MP Han Dong is loyal to Canada.

Even a tweet by his chief of staff, Katie Telford, using the Queen’s Gambit of the abortion issue unprompted (“I am unabashedly pro-choice. We must regularly talk about politicians who are not”) failed to shift the discourse.

It was only then, with every ploy in the book of digressions expended, that the prime minister was obliged to take the issue seriously.

In those circumstances, to expect kudos is risible.

The government is now committed to the National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency taking a look at the problem.

Trudeau also announced a special rapporteur, to be named at a later date, will make recommendations and a foreign registry will be fast-tracked.

It must all have sounded like an impressive sheaf of measures around the table in the Prime Minister’s Office — perhaps enough to convince Canadians that the government takes foreign interference seriously and is resolved to clamp down.

The problem for the Liberals is that Canadians no longer assume that an announcement by Ottawa is a precursor to action. This is a government for which reforms are forever in the pipeline.

The two committees that have been called into action are more suited to overseeing the security services than launching investigations.

NSICOP has a long history of making recommendations on this specific issue that the Trudeau government has ignored. In 2019, the committee warned that Chinese interference is “eroding the foundations of our fundamental institutions, including our system of democracy itself.”

It doesn’t get much more stark than that. Why would anyone have confidence that the government will do what is required once the issue has slipped from the headlines?

The special rapporteur is an intriguing response, but the idea sounds like it was struck in the car on the way to the press conference — there is no information on who might do the job; on what is expected of him or her; whether the post will have any investigative resources; whether it will have subpoena powers; or, crucially, on what timeline he or she will be working.

Security sources point out that gaining top secret clearance alone will take months.

Much will depend on who is named to the job and the scope of the mandate.

Trudeau said the rapporteur will have the ability to recommend a public inquiry but that seems unlikely. Who, having been appointed to the most interesting job of their career, suddenly decides to pass the responsibility to a judge?

My take is that Trudeau and his party have no idea whether they have been compromised by the Chinese but years of passive, and in some cases active, complicity means it is eminently possible. One Liberal veteran said the Chinese are only doing what the Liberal party itself has done for years — fixing its own nomination races. “The Chinese embassy could elect the candidate of its choice in any riding that historically votes Liberal,” he said.

In that light, a public inquiry might invite disaster. Having failed to change the channel, the prime minister has set in train a process that, whatever it finds, is unlikely to come to any conclusions this side of an election.

The problem with all this is that Trudeau’s overarching concern is not to find out what happened and ensure that it doesn’t happen again; rather, it is an exercise in damage-limitation for the Liberal party.

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[SLEMPY]

He approved the interference. He got caught

[lowdown]

How about Jody Wilson- Raybould for rapporteur

[meno]

...how about we thoroughly investigate the interference in this last election before we set things right in the next one.... we'd like to know who the candidates were that aledgedly took the donations....we want transparency....

[DM-wbjv]

Cut too.. .. I admire china's basic dictatorship! Democracy restarts when Trudeau leaves parliament.

[MrCraigBlake]

So, federal MPs receiving money from foreign agents for political influence secretly behind closed doors is what the majority of Canadians voted for publicly. And you are working hard to ensure that the majority of Canadians vote for you to continue receiving money from foreign agents secretly behind closed doors now, and in the future.

[open_minded]

The way Trudeau got in as PM was ubserd. Getting young minded students to vote for him by legalizing Marijuana, even when I was in school when he was elected. I liked the as well, but now I truly dis like Trudeau

[davemcgillivrav]

lying cheating hurting its all you seem to do dadada da da your time is come