Poilievre slams Carney over ties to China in heated debate ahead of Canadian election

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre explained in detail during Thursday night's federal English-language debate why he has not received his security clearance, pushing back against Prime Minister Mark Carney, who questioned his decision to forgo it.

"We have our top-secret security clearance," Carney began, motioning to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet. "I got mine within three weeks, it wasn't hard ... It is now 950 days, if my numbers are right, since you've had the opportunity to get your top-secret security clearance, and you've refused. Why?"

Poilievre responded by explaining that he had already held such clearance when he was a minister, saying there was "no problem getting that" when necessary.

"When the government made this recent offer," Poilievre continued, "they said that if I got the secret security clearance briefings, that I would be gagged under the security law and I could be prosecuted if I spoke freely about matters of foreign interference."

He added that "given that Canada has experienced Chinese interference by Beijing—the government of China—in two consecutive elections, I needed to do my job to speak freely without fear of prosecution."

Poilievre also brought up that even former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair had refused similar terms. “Never would have accepted the kind of gag order that your government and Mr. Trudeau's government was attempting to impose on me."

"It's good that I made that decision," Poilievre continued, "because it has allowed me to speak freely about things like the case where one of your candidates, sir, actually said that he wanted to send a political opponent to China under a bounty threatening his life or imprisonment, and you refused to get rid of him."

He then accused Carney of having ties to China, saying his refusal to remove the candidate "might have something to do with the fact that you went to China not long ago to get a quarter-billion dollar loan for your company."

"The reality is, you refused to stand up for a Canadian who was being threatened by a foreign government, and I was able to speak freely on that matter because I refused the gag order that the Liberal government of Canada tried to impose on me."

Carney closed the exchange by noting that Canada’s election interference problems go beyond China. "We'll leave it at that."