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OTTAWA The political fallout of the latest allegations of foreign influence involving a Toronto MP dominated debate on Parliament Hill Thursday. But it wasnt enough to get the Liberal government to agree to opposition demands for a public inquiry into alleged Chinese interference in Canadian democracy.

The Conservatives, Bloc Qubcois and New Democrats all pressed for answers and called for a public inquiry after Don Valley North MP Han Dong tearfully resigned from the Liberal caucus Wednesday night to sit as an Independent.

On Thursday, hours after he left the Liberal caucus, Dong voted against the government to help the opposition parties pass a non-binding motion calling for an inquiry into foreign election interference.

But the government has so far resisted those calls, which emerged with renewed vigour after the latest allegation that Dong has dismissed as a false attack on his reputation that questioned his loyalty to Canada.

Dong was referring to a Global News report, which cited unnamed national security sources who alleged Dong secretly advised a Chinese diplomat in 2021 that Beijing should refrain from releasing two Canadians who were jailed by the authoritarian regime at the time.

The Star has been unable to verify the report, and Dong did not respond to questions from the Star on Thursday.

The imprisonment of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig was denounced widely as retaliation for the 2018 arrest of a Chinese telecom executive in Vancouver at the request of the United States. The Canadian government railed against the jailing of the Two Michaels and rallied international support against hostage diplomacy until their release in September 2021 after more than 1,000 days in Chinese detention.

In the House of Commons on Thursday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre repeatedly demanded to know when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau learned of the allegations against Dong. Conservative MPs suggested it was unlikely that security sources would leak the information to a media outlet without informing the government.

A government official confirmed to the Star that the government only found out about the allegations when Global News asked questions about them.

Describing the report as a startling revelation, Poilievre said it would be a devastating scandal if the allegations were true and Trudeau knew about them.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mlanie Joly fired back that Trudeau made sure the government was standing up to China over the detainment of Spavor and Kovrig.

We will never accept any sort of premise that this government and Canadians didnt work enough to bring them back home, Joly said.

Even alluding to the contrary is absolutely false, she later added.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who was among the first to call for Dong to step down from the Liberal caucus, said he will bring up the prospect of a public inquiry when he meets with David Johnston, the special rapporteur appointed by the government to look into allegations of foreign interference.

Yet Singh whose party is propping up the Liberal minority government in a parliamentary co-operation deal also rejected any suggestion that the issue is worth triggering an election over. The Star reported this week that the Liberals allowed speculation to float about whether they would stage a confidence vote over the matter as a test of their relationship with the NDP.

We dont want an election in the context of a time when people are raising legitimate concerns about foreign interference, said Singh, who stated this week that he still thinks the parliamentary deal is worthy of maintaining.

Meanwhile, some Liberals praised Dongs decision to leave caucus. International Trade Minister Mary Ng told reporters Thursday that Dong made the right decision, given the seriousness of the allegations against him.

Another Liberal MP, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about internal party matters, said Thursday that Dongs departure from caucus was likely inevitable after the latest Global News story, which materially changed the pressure on the government over allegations of foreign interference.

There was some sense of closure after Dong resigned from caucus, the MP said.

Now it would be preferable to call a public inquiry instead of allowing security sources to continue leaking sporadic information that is fuelling the political firestorm over foreign interference, the MP said.

Arguing a public inquiry might not be able to air all information on sensitive national security matters like this, the government has instead appointed Johnston to guide its response, as two closed-door investigations one by a special committee of MPs and senators, the other by an independent national security agency look into the issue.

The Liberals have also agreed to allow Trudeaus chief of staff, Katie Telford, to testify at a parliamentary committee studying foreign interference.

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MP who quit Liberals over China allegations votes with Tories for ... - Toronto Star

Politics

Posted: March 23, 2023

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says next week's federal budget must expand dental care in order to maintain the confidence-and-supply agreement his party has with the Liberals.

He said he also wants to see some action on mental health, financial supports for the vulnerable and a response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

"The dental care program is a health piece that's going to help people with really critical health, but it's also [about] savings," he told CBC News Thursday.

"There's certain things that are outlined in the agreement [and] that dental care pieceis specifically outlined. That has to be there and the expansion has to be there."

When the Liberals and the NDP announced their confidence-and-supply agreement a year ago, the NDP's support in the House of Commons was contingent on the Liberals introducing a national dental care program for low-income Canadians.

In its first year, that program was to cover low-income Canadians under age 12. In 2023, the program is set to expand to cover Canadians under 18, seniors and those living with a disability. The program is to be fully implemented by 2025.

In the last federal election, the Liberals promised to establish a new federal transfer separate from the Canada Health Transfer called the Canada Mental Health Transfer (CMHT).

With an initial investment of $4.5 billion over five years, combined with existing bilateral agreements on mental health services signed with the provinces in 2017, mental health services were to get $2.5 billion annually until 2025-26.

"This transfer will help establish standards in each province and territory, so that Canadians are able to expect services that are timely, universaland culturally competent," the Liberal platform said.

Singh said the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates and inflation all contributedto increased mental strain among Canadians and the Liberal government needs to fulfil its commitments on mental health.

"We believe a mental health transfer should happen The fact that mental health is something that's been long underfunded and inaccessible needs to be met with a specific transfer," he said.

Earlier this week, the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH)published a survey of Canadians who have accessed mental health services or resources during the past year.

That survey found only 23 per cent of respondents said that mental health supports were meeting their current needs, while 47 per cent gave the support they received a failing grade.

Earlier this month,mental health advocates told CBC News they've seen little of that promised money despite a rise in the number of reported mood disorders since the start of the pandemic.

"There's no way that increased investment has caught up with the increased level of need," Mary Bartram, policy director at the Mental Health Commission of Canada, told CBC News.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the budget will offer targeted measures to help Canadians squeezed by rising interest rates and inflation.

Freeland said the support will be "narrowly focused and fiscally responsible" but warned that the Liberal government "can't fully compensate every single Canadian for all of the effects of inflation or for elevated interest rates."

Singh told CBC News he wants to see two affordability measures in the budget: a boost to the GST rebate and a school lunches program.

Last year, under pressure from the NDP, the Liberal government doubled the GST tax credit for six months. Singles without children got up to $234 more from the credit, couples with children got up to $467 and seniors got an average boost of $225.

"A lot of people got extra money to help them pay bills. That is huge," Singh said. "When you are struggling, that extra help means the world and I really believe in that."

Singh said the costof last year's GST boost is now "baked into" the government's finances and while he would like the increase to be made permanent, he'sonly expecting to see short-term relief.

He said he wants the federal and provincial governments to sit down and negotiate a school lunches program to help families and ensure children are getting proper nutrition.

"Both these measures are non-inflationary because they are targeted and the way that they are rolled out will not increase overall inflation," he said.

Freeland also said this week that the budget will contain measures to offset the impact of U.S. President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. Finance Canada officials said last fall that the act amounts to "a gravitational black hole" that will draw capital to the U.S. at the expense of Canada and other countries.

The multi-billion-dollar program earmarks government dollars for developing low-carbon energy in a way that boosts the U.S.'s manufacturing sector while taking aim at China's dominant position in the clean energy tech supply chain.

"We want to see a response to America's Inflation Reduction Act we want to see a plan in Canada to create good jobs and help us to fight the climate crisis we're dealing with as well," Singh said.

Singh said that measures should be crafted to match the impact of the U.S. program and should go towardcreating jobs, rather than directly to companies.

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Jagmeet Singh says Liberals must expand dental care program to maintain deal with NDP - CBC News

Canadians living with a disability expect and deserve accessible, quality services, including transportation. The AGs findings that two-thirds of people with a disability find barriers on planes and trains in Canada is unacceptable. The AG report highlighted that websites for planning and booking trips remained inaccessible to persons living with a disability. This is completely unacceptable.

Just yesterday, there was another story of discriminatory treatment of a family just trying to access a flight with a wheelchair. The Liberal government must step up to fix these issues. In federally regulated sectors, government is expected to do everything possible to lift all barriers that prevent Canadians living with a disability from travelling. This means ensuring that the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, Via Rail and the Canadian Transportation Agency are held accountable for failing to make travel more accessible. The government also has an obligation to ensure that resources are available and staff are trained to deliver the services people living with a disability depend on.

New Democrats call on the Liberals to do whats right to ensure that people living with a disability face no barriers when travelling.

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AG report shows Liberals failed to deliver accessible transportation ... - New Democratic Party

Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad, a former BC Liberal, announced Thursday he is running to become BC Conservative leader, saying voters need an alternative to the provinces two main parties.

The Tyee launches a new free newsletter with fresh reporting and curated must reads. Just in time for the big vote.

One lucky reader will win two tickets to a Femme Festival show and a gift certificate from Community Taps and Pizza.

Rustad talked about the need to form a broad coalition, but made specific overtures to truck convoy supporters and people concerned with what their children are learning in schools being at odds with the family values they may have at home.

We have an NDP party, we have an NDP-lite party, or whatever the BC Liberal Party are calling themselves these days, but we do not have a party that actually promotes and supports people individually to be able to fight for their ridings, Rustad said in a phone interview.

We also do not have a party thats going to stand up and just fight for everyday British Columbians.

Rustad said neither the NDP nor the Liberals are providing the options he believes British Columbians want. The province needs to go in a different direction and I feel that the Conservative Party of British Columbia can build that new coalition and provide that direction for the province.

While the BC Conservative party ran candidates in just 19 of the province's 87 constituencies in the last election and received less than two per cent of the vote, a reinvigorated party has the potential to be a significant factor in close races the next time the province goes to the polls.

BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon kicked Rustad out of the party caucus in August after the northern B.C. MLA posted tweets questioning climate science and declined to commit to sticking to the partys platform on the issue.

Rustad sat for several months as an Independent before announcing in February that he would join the BC Conservatives and become the partys sole MLA. When the leadership came open, he was immediately seen as a frontrunner for the job.

The key in my mind is we cannot be a party that is driven by ideology, said Rustad. It cant be about Conservatives, or Liberals, or NDP, it has to be a party about British Columbians to be a true coalition, because you need to be able to draw across the political spectrum.

Many people feel alienated from politics and dont see either the government or Falcons opposition representing their values, he said.

Hes trying to follow this woke ideology and I just dont believe its going to resonate with people in this province, Rustad said.

I just think quite frankly the Liberal party has run its course. Its lost its moral compass. It is no longer a coalition party and we have to have a new coalition party to be able to have an opportunity to govern in this province.

Rustad made clear where the first building blocks for a coalition are likely to come from.

I am the only MLA who has publicly supported the freedom movement in our province. I am proudly pro-freedom and pro-trucker, and I'm fighting to end mandates and hire back our health-care heroes.

He talked about fighting for affordability and good paying jobs, but also for parents rights to teach their children their family values.

If hes wanting to build a coalition, why start with groups that some mainstream voters might be reluctant to be associated with?

The people who I mentioned in the press release really dont have a home right now, Rustad said, so I thought I would reach out to them and show that we can be a home for them, but we obviously need to be much bigger than that if we want to be a true coalition to govern the province of British Columbia.

And how exactly are parents prevented from teaching their values to their children?

I hear from a lot of people around the province that our education system is being diluted, it has been watered down, and needs quite frankly to be refocused on academics to be able to prepare students for their future, said Rustad.

Go and look at the curriculum and all the values and the issues that are being taught in our classrooms today, he said. There is a wide range of them and Im not going to label any one particular thing, but we seem to have got away from the basics of education and what the purpose of our education is for.

The education system should be teaching kids how to think, not what to think, he said.

Despite the clear appeals to social conservatives who may not feel at home in the larger parties, Rustad insisted a BC Conservative party under his leadership would be welcoming to all.

As a political party we should not be hiving off groups and labelling groups and practising the politics of division, he said.

Rustad was first elected in 2005 and served as the minister of Aboriginal relations and reconciliation in then premier Christy Clark's government. He is the first person to announce he is seeking the BC Conservative leadership. Applications are due by Tuesday and a vote is scheduled for May 28 if its needed.

The speed of the contest makes sense so that the party can be ready for either an early election or the one scheduled for October 2024, said Rustad, adding the goal is to run candidates in every constituency and for enough of them to win to form the government.

Its a long way to go and I know theres a short time to get there, but thats the goal, he said. Im optimistic well be able to grow this party.

Originally posted here:
MLA Rustad Launches Conservative Leadership Bid and Attacks ... - TheTyee.ca

Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, leaves after a meeting of the Liberal Caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus top adviser will testify at a House of Commons committee on foreign election interference after Liberals ended their obstruction and acquiesced to a narrow probe proposed by the NDP, over a sweeping study pushed by Conservatives.

Katie Telford, who has been Mr. Trudeaus chief of staff since the Liberals formed government in 2015, attends most national-security briefings and would know how the Prime Minister responded over warnings from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about Chinese election intrusion.

The climbdown came Tuesday after Liberal MPs spent days filibustering an NDP motion that included calling Ms. Telford to answer questions at the procedure and House affairs committee. She is being asked to explain what she and the Prime Minister knew about Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections and what they did to stop it. She will testify the week of April 10.

Opposition parties have strongly criticized the Prime Ministers response to a series of reports in The Globe and Mail based on secret and top-secret CSIS documents detailing meddling from the Chinese government and its proxies in Canadian elections. In response to their calls to immediately strike a public inquiry, Mr. Trudeau instead appointed former governor-general David Johnston to advise him on whether he should launch one.

Mr. Trudeau has also asked two closed-door panels, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), to study Chinas interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. The results of their work will be reviewed by Mr. Johnston.

The government also announced Tuesday that Mr. Johnston will have until May 23 to make a recommendation on whether to call a public inquiry. Mr. Trudeau has said he will accept whatever Mr. Johnston suggests. The Conservatives and Bloc Qubcois disagree with the choice of Mr. Johnston, saying he lacks the independence required for the sensitive file because of his close ties to the Trudeau family.

On Tuesday, the Prime Ministers Office also released the mandate for Mr. Johnstons work. He will assess the extent and impact of foreign interference in Canadas elections and identify outstanding issues requiring attention. He is expected to complete his review and provide a final set of recommendations by Oct. 31.

Just before the Prime Ministers Office announced Ms. Telford would testify, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters if the Liberals didnt end their obstruction at the procedure and House affairs committee, the New Democrats would support the separate Conservative motion. That proposal would have shifted the study to an opposition-controlled committee and forced dozens more senior ministers, officials and advisers to testify on foreign election interference.

Because Mr. Trudeau conceded to the NDP, the fourth-place New Democrats helped the Liberals defeat the Tory proposal in the House 177 to 147. The Bloc supported the Conservatives.

John Ibbitson: Opposition to David Johnstons appointment shows how much politics has changed

Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer accused Mr. Singh of breaking with the approach taken by past NDP leaders, such as Jack Layton, and selling out long standing principles in exchange for who knows what.

The NDP decided to help their friends in the Liberal Party to keep the cover-up going, Mr. Scheer said, noting the differences in scope of the different parties motions and the fact that Ms. Telford will now be allowed to testify before a committee chaired by the Liberals.

Mr. Singh maintained that the NDP offer rendered the Conservative motion useless which is very much on brand for a party that has been pretty useless.

He dismissed the Tory motion as a game and said a question about whether the NDP was giving the minority Liberals cover was a Conservative narrative.

We have consistently been the ones to try to protect our democracy, he said.

Under Mr. Singh, the NDP has agreed to keep the minority Liberals in power in exchange for policy and spending concessions.

CSIS documents leaked to The Globe and Mail describe Chinas efforts to influence the past two federal elections. The Globe has reported that, in the 2021 election, Beijing employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canadas democracy that involved working against some Conservative candidates in an attempt to bring about a Liberal minority government. CSIS reports also said China interfered in the 2019 federal campaign.

Liberal MPs have argued that the documents are not a full picture of how national-security agencies have handled Chinese interference, and that cabinet ministers should be answering questions on this issue and not political staff.

Postelection reports have determined that the meddling did not have a material impact on the election result and political leaders, including the Conservatives, have said they accept the outcome of the last campaign.

The Liberals used procedural tactics to try to prevent Ms. Telford from testifying, but also accuse the Conservatives of acting in their own partisan interest as opposed to the public interest. In announcing she would appear at the committee, the government played down expectations for how much Ms. Telford can disclose about top-secret information in a public setting.

The Conservatives are trying to gin up the toxicity and partisanship by making a political theatre out of it and by catching Ms. Telford or others in not being able to answer direct questions, the Prime Minister said Tuesday. There are unfortunately many things that cant be said in a public committee.

Officials and ministers who have testified on the issue so far have frequently declined to answer specific opposition questions about The Globes reporting, citing secrecy rules.

At an earlier news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Singh said he has told the Prime Minister that the only appropriate response to the allegations of interference is to strike a public inquiry.

Theres a lot of serious questions about what the Prime Ministers Office knew, when they knew it and what they did about that, Mr. Singh said.

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Trudeau adviser Katie Telford to testify on Beijing election ... - The Globe and Mail