Two elections have passed since the PM was briefed on election interference, and he knew about the issue for years before Poilievre was leader of the CPC. The fact that they’re talking about Poilievre at all seems to me to be an abdication of responsibility.
I guess I’m not sure what you think he should have done differently?
Like, this whole situation is a mess, and there’s a mix of possible “foreign influence” in play, ranging from “unsuccessful attempts” to “this person is an active foreign agent,” and it’s all based on classified CSIS intelligence. And these people are still elected officials, so it’s there more that even could be done beyond perhaps booting them out of caucus?
Surely we can agree that the situation isn’t as straightforward as we’d like it to be.
It would be nice if the current Election Interference Commission was initiated 7 years ago, after the PM was first briefed on election interference. Instead they sat on numerous subsequent briefings, and allowed 2 federal elections to take place (one of which they themselves called) where the issue was unresolved, and it remains unresolved today.
What could they have done differently? I don’t know, I’m not an elected policymaker. All I see is the result, where, there’s this ominous list of compromised parliamentarians that, from the outside, it doesn’t seem like there is anything being done about. A provably compromised MP is still sitting in the House. There doesn’t appear to be any consequence or even disincentive for foreign nations to interfere in Canadian politics. A Canadian citizen was murdered on Canadian soil by the Indian government, and all it has resulted in are meek discussions and shuffling around of ambassadors. This is a very bad situation for Canadian sovereignty.
The solutions might not be straightforward, but we should be demanding that our government do better. It’s not a partisan thing.
There’s already another article posted about this, but I would think the concerns around releasing classified information are self-evident.
Two elections have passed since the PM was briefed on election interference, and he knew about the issue for years before Poilievre was leader of the CPC. The fact that they’re talking about Poilievre at all seems to me to be an abdication of responsibility.
I guess I’m not sure what you think he should have done differently?
Like, this whole situation is a mess, and there’s a mix of possible “foreign influence” in play, ranging from “unsuccessful attempts” to “this person is an active foreign agent,” and it’s all based on classified CSIS intelligence. And these people are still elected officials, so it’s there more that even could be done beyond perhaps booting them out of caucus?
Surely we can agree that the situation isn’t as straightforward as we’d like it to be.
It would be nice if the current Election Interference Commission was initiated 7 years ago, after the PM was first briefed on election interference. Instead they sat on numerous subsequent briefings, and allowed 2 federal elections to take place (one of which they themselves called) where the issue was unresolved, and it remains unresolved today.
What could they have done differently? I don’t know, I’m not an elected policymaker. All I see is the result, where, there’s this ominous list of compromised parliamentarians that, from the outside, it doesn’t seem like there is anything being done about. A provably compromised MP is still sitting in the House. There doesn’t appear to be any consequence or even disincentive for foreign nations to interfere in Canadian politics. A Canadian citizen was murdered on Canadian soil by the Indian government, and all it has resulted in are meek discussions and shuffling around of ambassadors. This is a very bad situation for Canadian sovereignty.
The solutions might not be straightforward, but we should be demanding that our government do better. It’s not a partisan thing.