GOLDSTEIN: If Trudeau thinks he’s Canada’s foreign interference whisperer, he’s delirious

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Published Oct 16, 2024  •  3 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is sworn in as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Photo by Justin Tang /THE CANADIAN PRESS

With Liberal MPs trying to convince Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quit lest his massive unpopularity with Canadians reduces the Liberals to third or fourth place in the House of Commons in the next election, Trudeau on Wednesday launched his latest campaign to save Canada in testimony at the foreign interference inquiry.

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Never mind the high cost of living, unaffordable housing and high immigration levels putting a severe strain on Canada’s beleaguered health care system and other vital public services.

Trudeau instead went for the oldest political trick in the book — changing the channel.

In bombshell testimony Trudeau testified that as prime minister, “I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference.”

He said he asked CSIS to find a way to inform the Conservatives of the intelligence he was relying on, but that it was impossible because Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre refuses to get the necessary security clearance to be briefed on the issue.

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Poilievre has refused because, he says, if he agrees he’ll be prohibited from telling the public what he knows.

Trudeau said, “The decision of the leader of the Conservative Party to not receive the necessary clearance to get those names and protect the integrity of his party is bewildering to me and entirely lacks common sense.”

He said it shows Poilievre isn’t serious about protecting Canadians from foreign interference and therefore not worthy of becoming PM.

Without stating it explicitly, Trudeau implied the reason Poilievre doesn’t care about foreign interference is that India, allegedly helped him win the 2022 federal Conservative leadership race in which the party disqualified Patrick Brown from running, because, it said, the Brampton mayor broke election financing rules.

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Brown has denied this and media reports have suggested India opposed Brown for Conservative leader because he was viewed as too sympathetic to Canadian Sikhs favouring the creation of an independent Sikh homeland, which India classifies as terrorism.

That allegation arises because of a redacted portion of a report earlier this year submitted to Trudeau by the all-party National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians that the PM created, containing a censored paragraph describing “India’s alleged interference in a Conservative Party of Canada leadership race” — meaning the race Poilievre won.

On Monday, Trudeau and the RCMP said Canada has proof India’s government — including top diplomats assigned to Canada that the Trudeau government has now expelled — facilitated extrajudicial killings and other crimes in Canada aimed at intimidating Canadian citizens of Sikh origin.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has called these allegations “preposterous.”

In response to Trudeau’s testimony Poilievre, challenged him, “to release the names of all MPs who have collaborated with foreign interference” (which would include Liberals) but added, “he won’t because Justin Trudeau is doing what he always does. He is lying to distract from a Liberal caucus revolt against his leadership and revelations he knowingly allowed Beijing to interfere and help him win two elections.”

In my view any attempt by Trudeau, to pose as the protector of Canadians from foreign interference is laughable, given that he had to to be dragged kicking and screaming into agreeing to a public inquiry into foreign interference in the first place, one where the Trudeau government’s utter incompetence in keeping Canadians safe has been exposed over and over again.

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