China may have allegedly tried to influence the results of 2021 Canadian Federal elections in favour of the ruling Liberal Party, media reports have claimed.
According to an investigative article published in Globe and Mail by Robert Fife and Steven Chase, Chinese diplomats through proxies employed “sophisticated strategy” to disrupt Canada’s democracy during the election campaign to secure victory for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
It added that China was determined to prevent a Conservative victory as they were seen as unfriendly to Beijing.
“China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign as Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – but only to another minority government – and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing,” the report said.
Responding to the allegations, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said China has been attempting to interfere in the country’s democracy for years, but he added Canadians can have “total confidence” in the integrity of its election results.
Trudeau said he has acknowledged before that “China is trying to interfere in our democracy, in the processes in our country, including during our elections.”
“This is not a new phenomenon, and this is something that countries around the world have been grappling with for a long time, and Canada is no exception,” he said, according to Bloomberg.
The report was based on documents from Canada’s spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
“The intelligence reports show that Beijing was determined that the Conservatives did not win. China employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals,” it said.
It also quoted an unidentified Chinese consulate official who said that the Liberal party was becoming the only party that Beijing could support.
China targeted several Conservative politicians, including Kenny Chiu and Alice Wong in British Columbia and Bob Saroya in Ontario, who all lost in 2021 Federal elections.
The report said the Chinese tactics include undeclared cash donations, political campaigns, reimbursing donors who make legal donations to preferred candidates. However, it didn’t say if it happened in the 2021 campaign.
The opposition Conservatives have long been alleging that China interfered in the 2021 election against some of their candidates by spreading misinformation through social media and other media outlets.
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