Pressure mounts on Trudeau to call inquiry into foreign political meddling
Global News
Senior national security and political voices are backing an independent inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian politics after reports of Chinese influence operations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under increasing cross-partisan pressure to call an independent inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian politics.
The push for some form of public inquiry isn’t limited to the Liberals’ political opponents, but former senior national security officials and a former close confidant of the prime minister.
“Some form of non-partisan deep look has to happen here,” Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s former principal secretary, told Global News in an interview Sunday.
Butts, now the vice chairman of the Eurasia Group, said there are a number of ways the government could commission a non-partisan investigation, including a public inquiry, Royal commission or a commission of inquiry.
“We have many tools at our disposal,” Butts said, adding that while recent reports have focused on Chinese political interference, the issue is broader.
“It’s not going to get at the heart of the problem if we just pick one election cycle and one country.”
Global News reported Saturday that Dick Fadden, the former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and a longtime senior national security official, said he could see no “compelling reason” not to hold a public inquiry into foreign interference.
Fadden’s comments came after months of Global’s exclusive reporting that national security officials had repeatedly warned Trudeau that the Chinese government had deployed an extensive network to attempt to influence Canadian elections. The network included both Liberals and Conservatives, according to Global’s sources.
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