It’s no second coat of whitewash. The initial report from the public inquiry into foreign interference is necessarily incomplete, vague in some places and inconclusive in others. But already, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue has gone further than the earlier effort by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s hand-picked special rapporteur, David Johnston.
In light of Justice Hogue’s findings, it’s clear that Mr. Johnston’s report amounted to a coverup, or at the very least an attempt to smother the controversy over China’s meddling in the 2019 and 2021 elections by taking aim, not at the government, but at the media and those who bravely chose to expose Beijing’s efforts by leaking classified information.
Justice Hogue has eschewed such nonsense. Instead, her first report delivers insights into what transpired in the 2019 and 2021 elections and raises serious questions about how intelligence officials and other senior bureaucrats responded to the threats posed by China’s malevolent actions.
Foreign interference a ‘stain’ on Canada’s electoral process, Hogue inquiry concludes
Her analysis sweeps away the smokescreen that the Liberals have attempted to cast around key issues in the debate over foreign interference by China. The biggest such diversion was the Liberal line that, sure, foreign interference is a problem, but it’s a longstanding one, and a number of other state actors also pose a threat.
The initial report demolishes that notion, underscoring that China “stands out as the most persistent and sophisticated foreign interference threat to Canada,” and that the resources it devoted outstripped those of any other state.
The Liberals have also continually pointed to the idea that the meddling did not affect which party formed government in the 2021 election as a way of implying that foreign interference had no effect at all. Mr. Trudeau went so far as to say that no riding results were affected, and that former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s concerns that China’s efforts cost his party up to nine seats was a case of sour grapes.
The report punctures that rhetoric. Justice Hogue concludes that the ultimate result was not changed. But she goes on to say there is a “reasonable possibility” that results in Steveston-Richmond East in British Columbia were impacted, and that it is possible that a small number of other ridings were affected. She praises Mr. O’Toole and the Conservatives for not calling into question the overall election results.
Even more crucially, Justice Hogue acknowledges two hard truths: foreign interference undermined “the right of voters to have an electoral ecosystem free from coercion or covert influence”; and, as a result, Canadians’ confidence in our democracy has been eroded. “This is perhaps the greatest harm Canada has suffered as a result of foreign interference,” she writes.
In remarks accompanying the report, she called foreign interference “a stain on our electoral process.”
Five takeaways from the foreign-interference commission’s report
The report is an important moment of clarity. The media are not to blame for the damage to Canada’s democracy, nor are the leakers of classified information, as the Liberals and Mr. Johnston attempted to assert. China is.
But Justice Hogue’s efforts are, at best, a decent start; she has yet to deal with the biggest questions surrounding Canada’s response. With one important exception, she hasn’t determined what the Prime Minister knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it.
Those questions are the heart of the matter. For more than a year, it’s been clear that China took steps to meddle in Canadian elections. More details are helpful, bolstered by sworn testimony, of course. Policy recommendations, eventually, will also be helpful. Neither of those, however, will result in accountability for the government for its actions, or inaction, to combat China’s electoral-interference campaign.
There is a hint of what, one hopes, may be coming in Justice Hogue’s second report in her recounting of how Mr. Trudeau reacted when told about allegations that China had meddled in the nomination race for Don Valley North, to the benefit of Han Dong, at that point the Liberal candidate in the 2019 election. Mr. Trudeau testified that he planned to “revisit” the matter after the election. ”However, the specifics of any follow-up are at this point unclear, and I am not certain what steps were taken,” she writes.
In that case, at least, the answer to the three questions is: Mr. Trudeau knew about allegations of Chinese interference before the 2019 vote – and there is no evidence at hand that he did anything at all that would harm the interests of the Liberal Party.