Trudeau says he’s ‘looking forward’ to foreign interference questions next week

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s “looking forward” to answering questions about foreign interference at a federal inquiry into the issue next week.

Trudeau was not, however, willing to answer those questions at a press conference on Friday. Asked directly about an alleged $250,000 fund from the Chinese government which may have been earmarked to interfere in recent federal elections, Trudeau talked about how seriously he says his government is taking the issue generally.

“The question of foreign interference is one that is extremely important,” Trudeau said in Calgary on Friday.

“That’s why as a government we put in place significant measures to ensure that, for example, our elections continue to be free and fair despite what we have known for years is ongoing attempts at interference by various foreign actors.”

Asked a follow-up about Canadian intelligence documents that suggested irregularities in former Liberal MP Han Dong’s 2019 nomination, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese consulate in Toronto, Trudeau declined to answer.

“I look forward to taking all sorts of questions at the commission next week,” Trudeau said.

CSIS director David Vigneault said Thursday that his agency had intelligence ahead of the 2019 federal election that the government of China attempted to funnel — through a network of “threat actors” — approximately $250,000, possibly to interfere in Canadian elections.

Global News first reported on these allegations in 2022, citing national security sources.

The CSIS summary says, “11 political candidates and 13 political staff members were assessed to be either implicated in or impacted by this group of threat actors.”

The intelligence agency uses the term “threat actors” in the document to refer to