MP Michael Cooper (CPC-St. Albert-Edmonton) said Monday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is creating “a smokescreen” in asking for an "independent special rapporteur," to examine China’s political interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. .“It is a complete smokescreen,” Cooper told the Western Standard. “It is the opposite of what CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] has called on the prime minister to do in the face of interference and that is to provide sunshine and transparency and what he wants to do is hurry it in a committee that meets behind closed doors.” "It's scandalous that we have a prime minister who refused to take this kind of interference, by Bejing, seriously.".At a Monday news conference, Trudeau said that he will ask the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) to assess foreign attempts to interfere in elections and report its findings and recommendations. The group would then be authorized to review the classified evaluation of the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol, a panel of senior bureaucrats tasked with telling Canadians of any irregularities that affected the 2021 election. .But Cooper said all this frenetic activity amounts to “Someone’swho’s going to report back to the prime minister” He said NSICOP will meet in secret and “prepare a report that is redacted by the PMO.” .“The prime minister is in a real conflict here,” Cooper said. “There are real questions about what he knew, when he knew and what he failed to do in the face of Bejing’s interference in the last two federal elections that took place under his watch as prime minister.” .He said Trudeau “turned a blind eye” to the interference “so long as such interference benefitted the fortunes of the Liberal Party.” .“There needs to be a public inquiry; we need to get to the bottom of this,” the MP, who is the leading Opposition member on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedures and House Affairs (PROC), said. .Cooper said any public inquiry must be able to compel witnesses to testify and see all relevant documents. He says that has been difficult on the PROC committee because “the Liberals with support of their NDP coalition partner have shielded officials, including the prime minister’s chief of staff,” Katie Telford. He said the NDP “has shielded Katie Telford three times.” .He promised that on Tuesday he would bring “forth a motion … to call on her to appear before the committee” .“It’s especially critical that we hear from Katie Telford,” he said, adding that “senor PMO officials were briefed by CSIS about Bejing’s interference in 2019 but did nothing.” .“Up to now the PM has obstructed, deflected, and refused to cooperate and one wonders why.” .Cooper said it is important that whoever heads any public inquiry into election interference “must have the support of all of the recognized parties in the House of Commons.” .He insisted that he can’t appoint “a friend” to investigate as Cooper says he did to review the 2021 federal election when he assigned the work to a “former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation … who actually was involved in accepting a $200,000 contribution from a Bejing communist advisor.” .Cooper wants the PROC committee to continue its work regardless of whether there is a public inquiry or not because the latter process “can take a long time.” .He says Canada needs answers “not in six months but now.” .“We know what has happened it’s a question of the extent that it happened.” .When asked why he and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre insist on referring to the election interference as coming from “Bejing” and not China, Cooper said, “Chinese Canadians are not responsible for this interference … who has to do with is the Bejing communist party. The Bejing communist party is responsible for this interference … Chinese-Canadians are victims.” .When asked if Conservatives were phrasing it this way because Trudeau has already said anti-Asian racism has somehow played a role in criticizing China’s subversive activities, Cooper said it is “part of the prime minister’s efforts to deflect, to blame others.” .When I asked if the ongoing revelations about election interference could spell political doom for Trudeau, Cooper responded, “We’ll have to see where the evidence takes us.” WATCH the full interview Wednesday on the Western Standard
