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Despite calls from the CSIS to rescind Han Dong's nomination, the Liberals allowed him to run. He now represents Don Valley North in Parliament.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked to explain his decision to ban government employees and equipment from accessing TikTok, following revelations that he ignored recommendations from Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that the Liberals allow a Toronto-area MP to run for office, due to alleged connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
Despite calls from the CSIS to rescind Han Dong's nomination, the Liberals allowed him to run. He now represents Don Valley North in Parliament.
CSIS investigators claimed also that Chinese Canadian seniors and students were bussed into the riding during the election and were told to vote for Han Dong.
Dong is believed to be one of at least 11 Toronto-area riding candidates given backing by Beijing in the 2019 election.
"As you all know," Trudeau said on Monday, "in the run-up to the 2019 election, Canadians had already seen from challenges to democracies like France or the United States, the role that foreign interference was potentially playing and a potential threat to our democracies.
"In early 2019, we stood up both an intelligence task force, and a high-level panel consisting of top public servants to be able to ensure that the integrity of our elections is not compromised by foreign interference," Trudeau said. "Good news, obviously, they determined in both the 2019 and 2021 elections that our election integrity held.
Trudeau said that there were still issues on an "ongoing basis" of interference in Canada's democracy.
Trudeau was later asked about a potential non-partisan public inquiry and why he is so resistant to one. He said that it was "important and great" that Canadians were so interested in democracy. Trudeau continued to tout the "important mechanisms" that he put in place.
Trudeau was asked whether he or his office was warned before or after the September 2019 election that Dong was suspected to be involved in CCP interference, to which he said that there are "1.7 million Canadians who proudly trace their origins back to China.
"Those Canadians should always be welcomed as full Canadians and encouraged to stand for office, to get involved in their communities and to take on part of the leadership of this country.
"... We are extraordinarily lucky and happy to have a member of Parliament like Han Dong in our midst, serving his community, serving our country alongside Chinese Canadian MPs from different parts of the country, alongside an extraordinary group of MPs who are proud Canadians, even as they trace their origins to elsewhere around the world, and that is as it should be."
Trudeau said that it was important to highlight that Canada has national security agencies who "were there to protect all Canadians of all different origins as well as our democratic processes. We always engage with them and listen. But let me also be really clear to a really important point that some folks are choosing to overlook.
"In a free democracy, it is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run. That's a really important principle," Trudeau said. "The suggestions we've seen in the media that CSIS would somehow say, 'no, this person can't run...' is not just false, it's actually damaging to peoples' confidence in our democratic and political institutions."
Despite calls from the CSIS to rescind Han Dong's nomination, the Liberals allowed him to run. He now represents Don Valley North in Parliament.
CSIS investigators claimed also that Chinese Canadian seniors and students were bussed into the riding during the election and were told to vote for Han Dong.
Dong is believed to be one of at least 11 Toronto-area riding candidates given backing by Beijing in the 2019 election.
"As you all know," Trudeau said on Monday, "in the run-up to the 2019 election, Canadians had already seen from challenges to democracies like France or the United States, the role that foreign interference was potentially playing and a potential threat to our democracies.
"In early 2019, we stood up both an intelligence task force, and a high-level panel consisting of top public servants to be able to ensure that the integrity of our elections is not compromised by foreign interference," Trudeau said. "Good news, obviously, they determined in both the 2019 and 2021 elections that our election integrity held.
Trudeau said that there were still issues on an "ongoing basis" of interference in Canada's democracy.
Trudeau was later asked about a potential non-partisan public inquiry and why he is so resistant to one. He said that it was "important and great" that Canadians were so interested in democracy. Trudeau continued to tout the "important mechanisms" that he put in place.
Trudeau was asked whether he or his office was warned before or after the September 2019 election that Dong was suspected to be involved in CCP interference, to which he said that there are "1.7 million Canadians who proudly trace their origins back to China.
"Those Canadians should always be welcomed as full Canadians and encouraged to stand for office, to get involved in their communities and to take on part of the leadership of this country.
"... We are extraordinarily lucky and happy to have a member of Parliament like Han Dong in our midst, serving his community, serving our country alongside Chinese Canadian MPs from different parts of the country, alongside an extraordinary group of MPs who are proud Canadians, even as they trace their origins to elsewhere around the world, and that is as it should be."
Trudeau said that it was important to highlight that Canada has national security agencies who "were there to protect all Canadians of all different origins as well as our democratic processes. We always engage with them and listen. But let me also be really clear to a really important point that some folks are choosing to overlook.
"In a free democracy, it is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run. That's a really important principle," Trudeau said. "The suggestions we've seen in the media that CSIS would somehow say, 'no, this person can't run...' is not just false, it's actually damaging to peoples' confidence in our democratic and political institutions."
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