David Eby says that the claims in a Globe and Mail report make him “very troubled,” and he wants more information
Premier of British Columbia David Eby says he’s “Chinese meddling in Vancouver’s municipal elections last year has made him “very troubled,” so he has asked Canada’s intelligence agency to brief him on the situation. Eby says that Canadians should get a “The Globe and Mail newspaper reported this week that China’s consulate in Vancouver meddled in the municipal elections by using diaspora community groups and grooming certain candidates. The government has asked for a “thorough and independent investigation” of these claims.
The prime minister says he has asked the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for a “full briefing,” but he hasn’t gotten it yet.
The newspaper article quotes CSIS documents, but Eby says he doesn’t know enough about them to say if they’re reliable.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said Thursday that he was disgusted by the report’s “insinuations” and that if he were white, he wouldn’t be a part of the conversation.
Eby said that most of the tools to fight international interference are in the hands of the federal government. However, he wants to know if there’s a way for B.C. to “close any gaps” in the tools it may have.
WATCH | Justin Trudeau defends Vancouver election results
He said that, for instance, Elections BC has already made suggestions to fight against false information.
At a news conference in Prince Rupert, Eby said, “We are always looking for ways to make sure that our elections are free and fair.”
In this article from the Globe and Mail, it says that the CSIS documents don’t say who the consulate wanted to run for mayor or council, but they do say that it wanted the current mayor, Kennedy Stewart, to lose.
Sim beat Stewart by more than 36,000 votes to become the first Canadian mayor of Chinese descent.
Prime Minister defends Vancouver result
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday morning in Ontario that it’s important to take claims of foreign interference seriously, but that doesn’t mean Canadians should automatically doubt the legitimacy of their elected leaders and institutions.
“I think we need to be very careful when little bits and pieces of information that haven’t been checked or confirmed are spread,” he said.
“The fact that people who choose to step up and help their communities, like Ken Sim, are attacked with incomplete and leaked accusations that he can’t even really answer to shows how delicate these issues are and how seriously they need to be taken.”
Trudeau is facing questions about what he and his staff knew about what is said to be foreign interference in federal elections.
Multiple media outlets have said that China tried to make sure the Liberals won the 2021 election, citing classified CSIS sources. These reports also said that Beijing interfered in the last two federal elections to help get rid of Conservative candidates who were against China.
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservatives, said in Vancouver that the CSIS leaks show that the Canadian intelligence community no longer trusts Trudeau.
The Conservatives have put forward a motion asking Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, to testify before a House of Commons committee looking into the interference claims.
Poilievre said, “The prime minister’s chief of staff was deeply involved in his campaign for leadership and in all of his campaigns for federal office.” “It’s time for her to come forward and tell the truth about what happened, what role Beijing played in helping Justin Trudeau, and how we can stop this kind of interference from happening again in Canada.”
“I lost by a lot,” says the ex-mayor
Stewart says he wants the claims that foreigners tried to influence Vancouver’s municipal election to be taken seriously, even though he doesn’t think that’s why he lost.
“I lost by a huge amount,” he told CBC.As It Happens. “I lost by 30,000 votes, so if this was going on, it wasn’t the reason I lost.”
But he said that he is still “deeply concerned” about reports of interference with Canadian democracy, especially at the local level.
Watch | Stewart discusses CSIS warnings
“It does look like the Chinese government may see municipalities as a weak link in Canada’s democratic chain when it comes to oversight, which I would completely agree with,” he said.
Stewart called for more work to be done at the municipal level to improve oversight of candidates, election spending, and voting.
He said, “I don’t understand why we don’t care more about this.”