Trudeau again deflects questions on foreign election interference | CBC News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he knows Canadians still have questions about China’s role in the past two elections — but he’s still refusing to answer specific questions about the briefings he has received.

Instead, he suggested Wednesday a recently announced special rapporteur and two intelligence agencies are better placed to look into what kind of information was shared with whom.

“To be quite honest, I know that no matter what I say, Canadians continue to have questions about what we did and what we didn’t,” he told reporters on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

“It is of concern to people that China continues to try to interfere, and other countries are interfering in our democratic processes.”

Reporters tried multiple times Wednesday morning to get the prime minister to respond to allegations that he and his national security adviser were warned that Chinese government officials were funnelling money to Canadian political candidates — despite their claims to the contrary.

According to reporting by Global News, the Privy Council Office prepared a report for the Trudeau government warning that Chinese officials in Toronto had disbursed money to a “covert network tasked to interfere in Canada’s 2019 election.”

“A large clandestine transfer of funds earmarked for the federal election from the PRC Consulate in Toronto was transferred to an elected provincial government official via a staff member of a 2019 federal candidate,” the report says, according to Global.

WATCH: Trudeau questioned about foreign interference claims

‘What did you know?’ PM faces more questions about election interference

On his way into a caucus meeting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained the creation of the special rapporteur looking into election interference when reporters pressed him for more answers on his knowledge of the situation.

The news organization reported in November that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed Trudeau in January 2022 on Chinese efforts to interfere in that election. The interference reportedly included the Chinese government funnelling money to at least 11 candidates.

Trudeau has denied being briefed

Responding to that story, Trudeau said he “never got briefings on candidates receiving money from China.”

His national security and intelligence adviser, Jody Thomas, told a committee in December she saw no evidence that any candidates in the 2019 federal election were influenced by money from the Chinese government.

“The news stories that you have read about interference are just that — news stories,” Thomas said.

“I’ll just say it — we’ve not seen money going to 11 candidates, period.”

On Wednesday, Trudeau said a recently announced special rapporteur will “dig deeply into everything anyone knew at any point.”

He has also tasked two intelligence watchdogs — the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) — to look into the allegations and how the intelligence agencies responded.

He said they “have access to all top-secret documents, all briefings that might have been made or could have been made, or were not made from CSIS.”

A spokesperson for the People’s Republic of China denies the claim that it interfered in Canada’s elections.

“China always opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs. We have no interest in and will not interfere in Canada’s internal affairs,” Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told a media briefing Wednesday.

“It’s absurd that some in Canada are making an issue about China based on disinformation and lies.”