During today’s testimony, RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme told the Foreign Interference Commission that he wasn’t made aware of several allegations of Chinese foreign interference leading up to the federal election.
When asked if he was aware of any allegations of “vote buying” or “enrichment” in British Columbia leading up to the 2019 and 2021 federal election, which likely cost Conservative MP Kenny Chiu his seat in the latter year, Duheme said, “No, because I believe that could have been a municipal matter, which didn’t tie into our national security framework that we have.”
He further stated that he was not made aware of any information related to Chinese foreign interference in the Don Valley North riding on behalf of Han Dong, who admitted to recruiting foreign students en masse to secure his position in the Liberal Party.
Commissioner Duheme also said that he was “not 100 percent sure” if he was given any information related to interference from the People’s Republic of China during the 2021 election.
Earlier, former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu explained that leading up to the election, he was subject to a concerted effort to slander him as a “race traitor” and white supremacist on Chinese social media to turn Chinese-Canadian voters away from him. He later learned that the government was aware of this but did nothing to stop it.
“I thought I would be protected by my country. And I was deeply troubled and disappointed that I was exposed, and the government didn’t seem to care. And now that, through the commission, I’ve learned that they’ve known all about it,” Chiu said.
“It’s almost like I was drowning, and they were watching it, and the best they could do is to let me know that I’m drowning. I didn’t need their notification. I needed their help.”
Chiu and his team had attempted to correct this misinformation, but he was repeatedly shut down by Chinese media, with one radio station allegedly going so far as to bar Chiu from speaking.
Chiu said he went down 8 points because of this despite projections—enough to lose to Liberal candidate Parm Bains.
