Documents opened during the China Inquiry Wednesday show senior officials from the Trudeau Liberal government witnessed a nomination vote allegedly targetted by foreign interference. The unnamed Liberal managers attended MP Han Dong’s 2019 nomination meeting, which was deemed a target of Chinese agents, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “Party brass from Ottawa were at the nomination vote,” one eyewitness said in sworn statement at the the Commission on Foreign Interference.The commission was presented with a transcribed document of an interview with then-campaign manager for Dong Ted Lojko, entitled Interview Summary. “This nomination was heavily scrutinized by the Liberal Party,” said the summary. “Several of the ‘party brass’ from Ottawa were at the nomination vote watching it unfold. Mr. Lojko could not remember the names of those who were present.”Lojko was quoted disclosing, “they were there because whoever won would be a new candidate nominated after the writ had dropped.”“They wanted to know whether there was anything the media could pick up on to tarnish the campaign. To Mr. Lojko’s knowledge this was the only open nomination in Toronto in 2019 since the rest of the ridings were filled with incumbents,” the document reads. The meeting was held September 12, 2019 at Toronto’s Armenian Community Centre. It was one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a general election.Lojko described the meeting as “chaotic” and said he expected MP Dong to lose. “Voting lasted for three to four hours,” the Interview Summary quoted Lojko. “Several hundred people voted. Once voting ended Mr. Lojko believed Mr. Dong had likely lost,” the summary states. “To his surprise Mr. Dong won the nomination. Mr. Lojko did not know how close the vote was.”Dong acknowledged he won in part with support from Chinese foreign students from the New Oriental International College Academy of Markham, ON. The school is not in Dong’s riding.“Mr. Dong did not think allowing foreign students to vote in a nomination contest was a potential vulnerability,” Dong was quoted in a February 21 document called Statement Of Anticipated Evidence to Commission counsel.“Anything is possible, but Mr. Dong had never seen any indication of foreign influence over foreign students.”Dong in a supplementary statement to the Commission April 1 acknowledged the Chinese teenagers voted for him. “They spoke Mandarin,” Dong was quoted. “As a result he believes they were likely mostly Chinese.”“He does not know whether all those students voted for him but believes it is likely most did because he visited the school as part of his nomination campaign,” said the statement. Dong made the admission one day before he was to testify under oath.The 2019 Don Valley North Liberal nomination meeting is currently under investigation by the Elections Commissioner. A confidential Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) memo alleged the Chinese Consulate in Toronto had foreign students vote for Dong using falsified documents.“Some intelligence reporting indicated students were provided with falsified documents to allow them to vote despite not being residents of Don Valley North,” said the CSIS memo“The documents were provided by individuals associated with a known proxy agent.”
