Former Opposition leader Erin O'Toole requested on Wednesday that MPs help find the Chinese agents responsible for the interference against the Conservatives during the 2021 federal election campaign.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, O'Toole stated that his team alerted election monitors about suspicious activities such as voter intimidation but did not see any actions in response to these warnings.“Who made the decision to say there was no significant cause for concern in the 2021 election?” O’Toole asked the House Affairs committee. Misconduct was obvious, he said.Conservative MP Kenny Chiu (Steveston-Richmond East, BC) attributed his defeat by 3,477 votes to Liberal candidate Parm Bains to a defamatory campaign in Chinese-language media.“I was hearing from candidates on the ground, particularly Mr. Chiu, but we were also hearing it in and around the riding of Bob Saroya in the Markham area that there was a lot of activity in WeChat and some in-store and in-person intimidation,” testified O’Toole.“Our polling numbers were off the charts, yet the results didn’t come back,” said O’Toole. “If people are scared to vote, they are not going to show up. We were reporting incidents we were hearing from the ground.” Two-term MP Saroya (Markham-Unionville, ON) lost to Liberal candidate Paul Chiang by 2,999 votes.The Foreign Affairs department confirmed that Chinese agents used WeChat to spread negative information about the Conservative Party.“A lot of people get their news from WeChat,” said O’Toole. “If that is being corrupted, we needed to warn people to just take a second look, and that warning never came.”“We are a G7 country,” said O’Toole. “We know this is happening. There needs to be seriousness and accountability.”On August 2, O'Toole resigned as a four-term MP for Durham, Ontario. O’Toole is the president of ADIT North America, a business consulting firm based in Paris.O'Toole stated that the investigators chosen by the Prime Minister's Office to look into foreign agent activities with minimal attention paid to the evidence provided by the Conservative Party.“The first investigation of the election didn’t talk to the people who had raised issues about the election,” said O’Toole. “I would give that an F.”“I knew more information than they did,” said O’Toole. “In intelligence, not every fact is right. It is about assessing grey. But you can also give a curated view of intelligence to drive to an outcome. Who provided that curation?”A February 28 cabinet Report on the Assessment of the 2021 Critical Election Incident Public Protocol found “no evidence to indicate foreign state actors” were involved in the campaign. Author Morris Rosenberg was the former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation. O’Toole on Thursday said Rosenberg never spoke with him.A follow-up First Report, released on May 23 by David Johnston, concluded that the cabinet was not at fault for ignoring security warnings. Johnston is a member of the Trudeau Foundation.On Thursday, O'Toole said he talked to Johnston only after the report was finished.“I was a check box on a list,” said O’Toole.“I now know I was targeted and our intelligence agencies knew about that targeting of me,” said O’Toole. Cabinet-appointed investigators had a “closed mind by the time they were talking to me,” he said.
Former Opposition leader Erin O'Toole requested on Wednesday that MPs help find the Chinese agents responsible for the interference against the Conservatives during the 2021 federal election campaign.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, O'Toole stated that his team alerted election monitors about suspicious activities such as voter intimidation but did not see any actions in response to these warnings.“Who made the decision to say there was no significant cause for concern in the 2021 election?” O’Toole asked the House Affairs committee. Misconduct was obvious, he said.Conservative MP Kenny Chiu (Steveston-Richmond East, BC) attributed his defeat by 3,477 votes to Liberal candidate Parm Bains to a defamatory campaign in Chinese-language media.“I was hearing from candidates on the ground, particularly Mr. Chiu, but we were also hearing it in and around the riding of Bob Saroya in the Markham area that there was a lot of activity in WeChat and some in-store and in-person intimidation,” testified O’Toole.“Our polling numbers were off the charts, yet the results didn’t come back,” said O’Toole. “If people are scared to vote, they are not going to show up. We were reporting incidents we were hearing from the ground.” Two-term MP Saroya (Markham-Unionville, ON) lost to Liberal candidate Paul Chiang by 2,999 votes.The Foreign Affairs department confirmed that Chinese agents used WeChat to spread negative information about the Conservative Party.“A lot of people get their news from WeChat,” said O’Toole. “If that is being corrupted, we needed to warn people to just take a second look, and that warning never came.”“We are a G7 country,” said O’Toole. “We know this is happening. There needs to be seriousness and accountability.”On August 2, O'Toole resigned as a four-term MP for Durham, Ontario. O’Toole is the president of ADIT North America, a business consulting firm based in Paris.O'Toole stated that the investigators chosen by the Prime Minister's Office to look into foreign agent activities with minimal attention paid to the evidence provided by the Conservative Party.“The first investigation of the election didn’t talk to the people who had raised issues about the election,” said O’Toole. “I would give that an F.”“I knew more information than they did,” said O’Toole. “In intelligence, not every fact is right. It is about assessing grey. But you can also give a curated view of intelligence to drive to an outcome. Who provided that curation?”A February 28 cabinet Report on the Assessment of the 2021 Critical Election Incident Public Protocol found “no evidence to indicate foreign state actors” were involved in the campaign. Author Morris Rosenberg was the former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation. O’Toole on Thursday said Rosenberg never spoke with him.A follow-up First Report, released on May 23 by David Johnston, concluded that the cabinet was not at fault for ignoring security warnings. Johnston is a member of the Trudeau Foundation.On Thursday, O'Toole said he talked to Johnston only after the report was finished.“I was a check box on a list,” said O’Toole.“I now know I was targeted and our intelligence agencies knew about that targeting of me,” said O’Toole. Cabinet-appointed investigators had a “closed mind by the time they were talking to me,” he said.
