Don Martin: Too much smoke not to have a fire somewhere inside the PMO or Liberal Party

After Liberal MPs wasted days to save her from a Commons committee appearance, Justin Trudeau’s office brain finally showed up Friday for a much-anticipated inquisition over foreign interference in Canadian elections.

It was a spectacular fizzle in terms of fresh revelations, which is precisely how Trudeau chief of staff Katie Telford wanted it as she set out to smother her testimony with a national security blanket.

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Vincent Ke serves Global News with libel notice over foreign interference report

Vincent Ke communist chinese asset

An Ontario legislator says he has served Global News with a notice of libel over allegations of election interference by China.

Vincent Ke argues the Global News article by reporter Sam Cooper falsely accuses him of being deliberately harmful to Canadian democracy.

The article alleged Ke served as a financial intermediary in a Chinese Communist Party election interference scheme.

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‘Another convenient non-answer’: Katie Telford stonewalls on foreign interference

Full of shit.

OTTAWA – The Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford finally appeared before a parliamentary committee examining foreign interference in Canada’s electoral system on Tuesday, but despite testifying for over two-and-half hours, ultimately said very little that shed any light on the matter.

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Trudeau Foundation asks Auditor-General to investigate donation

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has asked the Auditor-General to investigate a controversial donation from two wealthy Chinese businessmen, who were acting at the behest of the government of China.

A foundation official said the chair of the foundation, Ted Johnson, wrote to Auditor-General Karen Hogan on Friday to request a formal audit of the non-profit organization, which was set up with a $125-million endowment from the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien in 2002. The Globe and Mail is not naming the official, because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

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No way around an inquiry into foreign interference

When the CEO and the entire board of directors of the Trudeau Foundation resigned en masse this week, they issued a statement blaming the “political climate” surrounding a donation that it now appears was connected to the Chinese government. It was all to do with “the politicization of the foundation,” they said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added to that narrative the same day. After making clear he’s had nothing to do for the past 10 years with the foundation created to honour his father, the PM declared “it is a shame to see the level of toxicity and political polarization that is going on in our country these days.”

That, as they say, did not age well …

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Trudeau Foundation ‘collateral damage’ of Poilievre’s partisan attacks, says Oil Can Harry

The former Liberal cabinet minister who oversaw the creation of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation claims Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is engaging in “ignorant, irresponsible and highly partisan” attacks.

Poilievre called for an investigation into the foundation earlier this week, posting on Twitter about a need to know who “got rich” as a result of donations to the foundation, as well as “who got paid and who got privilege.”

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Ahead of Telford testimony, Trudeau says “We have been talking about foreign interference for years.”

Ahead of Friday testimony from his chief of staff on foreign election interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he and Katie Telford have talked about the issue “many” times over the years.

“The conversations I have with my chief of staff, and with my entire government, and with our defence and security experts, are ongoing,” Trudeau told reporters on Thursday. “We have been talking about foreign interference for years.”

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Trudeau Foundation donor heads group that adheres to ‘total leadership’ of Chinese Communist Party

A businessman whose reported donations to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation led to the resignation of its CEO is the president of a Chinese cultural organization that says it operates under the authority of the communist government.

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BC Chinese Communities Tell Mendicino of Intimidation by Foreign Powers and Proxies

Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says Chinese community members in Vancouver have told him of “intimidation, harassment and abuse” linked to foreign governments or their proxies, confirming the need for a foreign agent registry.

Mendicino said he met Wednesday with a “robust cross-section” of people from the communities.

The results, he said, reinforced the need for a registry of agents who are acting on behalf of foreign governments in Canada.

The LPC should be registered as a foreign agent.

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GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau should bite bullet and call public inquiry into election interference

Surely, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now realizes that his self-appointed “special rapporteur” and life-long friend, David Johnston, isn’t going to solve his problems when Johnston advises him by May 23 whether he should hold a public inquiry into alleged interference by Beijing in the last two federal elections.

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Russia says China agreed to secretly provide weapons, leaked documents show

Secret handshake?

China approved “provision of lethal aid” to Russia in its war in Ukraine earlier this year and planned to disguise military equipment as civilian items, according to a U.S. intercept of Russian intelligence revealed in leaked secret documents.

The intercept, apparently obtained through U.S. eavesdropping on Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was included in a top-secret summary, dated Feb. 23, of recent Ukraine- and Russia-related “products” compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It was among a number of previously unreported documents that The Washington Post obtained from a trove of images of classified files posted on a private server on the chat app Discord.


The most shocking intel leak reveals new Chinese military advances

China has tested and deployed a new longer-range hypersonic missile that is likely able to evade U.S. defenses, according to an overlooked top-secret document among those recently leaked. Now, the public can see what the American intelligence community already knew: China is quickly improving its capacity to strike thousands of miles from its shores and prevent the United States from intervening.

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Carson Jerema: Trudeau Foundation deserves its fate

The Trudeau Liberals are as committed as ever to the shameless argument that the scandal is not Chinese interference into Canadian affairs, but the fact that China’s meddling was revealed to the public. It is a tactic that can’t withstand anyone looking too closely, or facts getting in the way, as was the case with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation this week.

The charity said Wednesday that it would conduct an investigation into a $200,000 donation allegedly made on behalf of the Chinese government in an apparent attempt at influencing Justin Trudeau. That announcement came after the CEO and the entire board of directors of the foundation resigned, and after the Liberals tried to blame “Conservative” attacks for the upheaval.

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‘These stories are based on unnamed sources,’ and other Liberal deflections

 

On Sept. 29, 1972, a story appeared on the front page of The Washington Post that began as follows: “John N. Mitchell, while serving as U.S. Attorney General, personally controlled a secret Republican fund that was used to gather information about the Democrats, according to sources involved in the Watergate investigation.”

Not “allegedly.” Not “reputedly.” The story flat out accuses the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government of running a political espionage operation on the side, with the obvious implication that this might have included the Watergate break-in.

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