On Tuesday morning, the Foreign Interference Commission will hear from a panel of political campaign directors: Walied Soliman, 2021 Conservative campaign co-chair, Azam Ishmael, the Liberals’ national campaign coordinator in 2021, and Anne McGrath, the NDP’s national director.
In the afternoon, Han Dong, the now-Independent MP from Toronto’s Don Valley North riding, will speak before the inquiry. Dong was credibly accused of benefitting from Chinese Communist Party influence during his successful nomination for the Liberals.
Currently outside of Han Dong’s office in Toronto. @handongontario
More at https://t.co/iFi3JfXmBJ pic.twitter.com/c8ATZm9KvE
— Lincoln Jay (@lincolnmjay) March 6, 2023
Before Dong testifies, however, Ted Lojko, his chief of staff, will speak first.
Up first on Tuesday is former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan, now deputy mayor of Markham. Chan is suing CSIS over allegations he was spied on after the agency became suspicious that he was engaged in “improper” activities with Chinese officials.
Keep track of today’s hearing by following along with Sheila Gunn Reid’s coverage on X, or on the page below:
Today, the Foreign Interference Commission resumes investigating the attempts—and successful attempts—of foreign actors and agencies to influence the outcome of Canadian elections.
Today will be very interesting. I’ll explain in the next post.
I will be covering it all day…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Tuesday morning, the inquiry will hear from a panel of campaign directors: Walied Solomon, Conservative Campaign co-chair in 2021; Azam Ishmael, who ran the national Liberal campaign in the same year; and Anne McGrath, the NDP’s national director.https://t.co/SzLGeuolPB
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Ted Lojko, Han Dong’s chief of staff, will testify before Dong offers his testimony to the Commission. https://t.co/gLskllXaW7
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
also, at the Foreign Interference Commission today:
Former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan, now deputy mayor of Markham. Chan is suing CSIS over allegations he was spied on after the agency became suspicious that he was engaged in “improper” activities with…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Tuesday afternoon, the commission will get hectic and testy.
The Foreign Interference Commission will hear testimony from Han Dong, the now-Independent
MP from the Toronto riding of Don Valley North, who was credibly accused of benefiting from Chinese influence in his…— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Ismael and McGrath both say they received no information about foreign interference during the 2019 election.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
McGrath says she learned about the arrest of a spy who had worked on the NDP campaign in the media https://t.co/8LKpWpE8bz
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Ismael says the threats of foreign interference in the 2021 election were low on the radar of the Liberal party.
Solomon says the Conservatives took the potential of foreign interference very seriously. BUT: the briefings he received from security officials were mostly useless.…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
McGrath echoes the other two campaign officials, saying the security briefings in 2021 were generic and that she received nothing actionable.
She says she was not given the tools to identify foreign interference from security officials.— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Solomon is being shown a security briefing note that refers to Pakistan and says that “Canada has been the target of foreign interference for many years.”
Says he was not shown this document in a briefing.
McGrath says she was not shown this doc either.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Both Solomon and McGrath say they were not given information about the level of threats from China in the 2021 election contained in this document. pic.twitter.com/8OqnUzwFfj
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Solomon and McGrath both say they were not given this information about specific targeting of the CPC campaign by China, although this document says there were two briefings with the parties on it. pic.twitter.com/PSkXNE1zRm
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Solomon says he began receiving reports from local campaign volunteers that candidates were being targeting by misinfo campaigns,
says the misinfo was around the Uyghur issue.
(Solomon seems prickly with the Commission lawyer. She wants him to recollect instanced. He says to…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
Solomon is shown a PCO doc, says he has not seen this until this morning.
The doc says Solomon was threatening to go public with info about foreign interference. He says he would not make some “Trumpian” allegation the campaign was lost to foreign meddling. But he says he knew… pic.twitter.com/picLSfkucI
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
The Liberal government of Canada investigated how it may have benefited from foreign meddling in the 2021 election after the CPC raised the issue, and, wouldn’t you know it!?
The Liberal government found it had not.
Just comical. pic.twitter.com/QhPBSBbubN
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
over and over again, the campaign officials heard there were no problems in the 2019 election.
We know that’s the election with the potentially contaminated nomination of Han Dong. https://t.co/6sp7Igyzzm
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
from a document submitted by the CPC to security officials in 2021, after hearing from individual campaigns about outside interference. pic.twitter.com/sm1tvVoKDA
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
McGrath says the security briefings she received were “box checking exercises”
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
on we are on break. Campaign officials are done. Back at 11:35 eastern
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) April 2, 2024
