Man picked to write report on Chinese election interference ran Trudeau Foundation when big donations came in from China
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One of the defences Justin Trudeau has used over allegations that China interfered in Canada’s election to get him elected is that we have a process to stop this. Beyond pointing to national security agencies, Trudeau has pointed to the task force of top public servants who look for election interference.
Just seven months after the 2019 election, that group released its rather vague report. The report on the 2021 report hasn’t been released yet and last week Trudeau said that wasn’t up to him.
Faced with new allegations of a specific Liberal MP getting help from China, Trudeau said on Monday the report is ready for politicians if not the public.
“There is another report, this one written by Morris Rosenberg, that has been released to both the government and to the national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians,” Trudeau said.
There is no date to release this report to the public but Trudeau wants you to know, “that both in the 2019 and the 2021 elections are election integrity held.” How can we know? He wants you to trust him.
The man Trudeau mentioned who wrote the report, Morris Rosenberg, is the former head of the Trudeau Foundation.
Rosenberg spent decades as a senior civil servant, running departments for both Liberal and Conservative prime ministers. Just before joining the Trudeau Foundation in 2014, he was the deputy minister at foreign affairs under the Harper government.
Still, the Poilievre Conservatives are raising issues with Rosenberg’s time at the Trudeau Foundation and the money that came into that organization from China when Justin Trudeau took over the Liberal leadership. National Post documented several years ago that in 2015, foreign donations rose from $53,000 in 2014 to $428,000 in 2015 and $535,000 in 2016.
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The exact source of the money isn’t known but there is proof that some came from China, including Chinese billionaire Bin Zhang who made a $200,000 donation.
“Serious questions must be asked about this appointment, and whether the Liberals are actually taking this threat against our democracy seriously,” the Conservatives said in a news release Monday afternoon.
They are calling for Rosenberg to appear before the Commons committee studying allegations of Chinese interference to answer questions.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the foreign donations in 2014, 2015 and 2016 in millions instead of thousands.