During his testimony, PM Justin Trudeau pleaded ignorance, saying he wasn’t aware of concerns of Chinese foreign interference in the 2021 elections until after the media reported it.

Specifically, when asked whether he was aware of a concerted effort by China to spread misinformation or disinformation about then-Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole and MP Kenny Chiu, who was slandered by Chinese media in the country as a “race traitor”, Trudeau said he wasn’t made aware or briefed on the matter until after the election.

“During the 2021 election, no. Shortly after the 2021 election, when the Conservative Party went public with its concerns in the week that followed, I learned about it through media reports,” Trudeau said.

When asked whether he was aware that the Conservatives had raised these concerns of foreign interference with the government as well, Trudeau said, “Not at the time. But later I would learn that through briefings. Months later.”

These were presumably verbal briefings, as Trudeau admitted to not reading most of the written briefings sent to him, even those coming from CSIS, Canada’s intelligence agency.

China’s election preference: A Liberal minority government

Trudeau also said that he was not aware of China’s preference for a Liberal minority government, either (i.e., the result of the election), saying that he was more concerned with the detainment situation facing the two Michaels.

As per a topical summary on foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections, “In 2021, there was reporting that some individual PRC officials in Canada made comments expressing a preference for a Liberal Party minority government. The PRC officials’ expressed rationale included that they did not perceive any of the political parties as being particularly ‘pro-China’, but rather that they perceived minority governments as being more limited in terms of enacting ‘anti-China policies.”

According to Trudeau, “I can certainly say that while individual officials may well have expressed a preference or another, the impression we got, and consistently would get, is that the actual People’s Republic of China would have no—it just would seem very improbable that the Chinese government itself would have a preference in the election,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau further stated that any intelligence on the matter of a preference for a Liberal minority government never reached him.