Both Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal leader Mark Carney on Wednesday morning were asked about claims the Conservative campaign had received foreign donations.
The Global News article published earlier Wednesday morning alleged operatives of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi donated to Poilievre’s campaign through the Overseas Friends of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party).
A reporter asked “how comfortable” Poilievre is with receiving donations from the group, given the members of the BJP “are allegedly behind violence against Sikh separatists here in Canada.”
“Well, first of all, I received 37,000 separate donations that anybody can make online. We don't have the capacity to do CSIS background checks on every single person who makes those donations,” replied Poilievre.
“We condemn 100% any foreign interference in Canada, and anyone who collaborates with it should be jailed.”
Poilievre, however, said “the real question” is, “why haven't the Liberals got the foreign agent registry up and running?”
“Then we would know proactively who is working on behalf of a foreign government,” said Poilievre.
“And then parties could actually go through their lists of donations and find out if there is anybody who's been a bad actor, but they haven't set that up, even though it was passed into law by Parliament.”
“The other question that you should be asking is, why does Mark Carney's campaign have support from the Chinese Communist government? Here he is. He's just in China a few months ago, arranging a quarter billion-dollar loan for his company, a company in which he still has millions of dollars of interest.”
“And now we find that the government in Beijing is actively interfering to campaign on behalf of Mr. Carney. I know that the government in Beijing was attacking his leadership rival, Chrystia Freeland during the leadership race, and now they're pushing out propaganda to support his campaign again.”
“He is conflicted. He continues to have financial interests in foreign hostile regimes in the hundreds of millions of dollars while he is running to be Prime Minister of Canada. That is the real foreign interference that we should be worried about. And it is the foreign interference that I will end.”
“After the lost Liberal decade, they have turned this country into a playground for foreign interference, and I will not allow that kind of thing to happen anymore.”
Carney was asked a similar question shortly after Poilievre’s press conference, while speaking to reporters in Calgary.
“I take these issues exceptionally seriously,” replied Carney.
“In fact, my first briefing as prime minister on national security, focused on that — of course, I can’t detail specifics.”
“I've reinforced the so-called SITE (Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force) process that oversees foreign interference, potential foreign interference in the election, and made it more transparent, which is why there are these public reports.”
“It's important that Canadians, obviously, be included in real-time regarding what's being said.”
Carney said he “extends that approach to the Liberal party” in terms of keeping the Liberal nominations and campaigns free of foreign interference.
He added that the Liberal leadership race, which he won by a landslide, was “very rigorous,” and said the party will “look at additional measures” to battle foreign interference “so that Canadians can have some confidence.”
“The SITE committee, which is an independent committee, has clearly stated to this point there continues to be a safe and fair election process in this country.”
“This is the most consequential election of our lifetime.”
