OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Former leader of the official opposition and Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) Erin O’Toole revealed how intelligence officials told him that he, along with his party, were the targets of an “active campaign of voter suppression” by the Communist Chinese Party (CPC) during the 2021 federal election.
“My privileges as a Member and officer of Parliament were infringed by the government’s unwillingness or inability to act on the intelligence related to foreign interference,” O’Toole said Tuesday while speaking in the House of Commons.
“The briefing confirmed to me what I had long suspected – that my party, several of my caucus colleagues and myself were the target of a sophisticated misinformation and voter suppression campaign orchestrated by the People’s Republic of China before and during the 2021 general election.”
In recent months, whistleblowers from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have been leaking to Canadian media the true extent of how deep CCP meddling has been regarding Canadian politics.
O’Toole, who is still an MP, noted that the Chinese Communist government’s “ideal outcome is to have its critics pull their punches and turn a blind eye. It is to create, at the end of the day, a chilling effect on public policy and a chilling effect on parliamentary debate.”
“This novel and expanding situation of foreign interference in our politics, seeking to silence the debates of this Parliament, must be met and our parliamentary democracy must be defended,” he said.
In all, O’Toole identified four different “categories of threats” from the CCP that were briefed to him by CSIS officials.
These include foreign funding from China through a third-party front organization called the United Front Work Department, whose goal is to create “misinformation” that targeted O’Toole.
Also, the United Front Work Department’s workers were used, said O’Toole, to expand misinformation regarding him and his party.
Another threat category as noted by CSIS to O’Toole was how social media, through the WeChat app, was used in a complex misinformation campaign to target conservatives.
Lastly, O’Toole said he was told that there was active voter suppression going on that targeted not only him but the Conservative Party as well as one other candidate in the 2021 federal election.
The potential interference by foreign agents has many Canadians concerned, especially considering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s past praise for China’s “basic dictatorship” and his labeling of the dictatorial nation as his favorite country other than his own.
To this end, Trudeau appointed former Governor General David Johnston as an “independent special rapporteur” to investigate the allegations that China was meddling in Canada’s elections in March. Of note is that Johnston is a known “family friend” of the Trudeaus.
Today, MPs in a majority vote called for Johnston to step down as “special rapporteur,” but he refused to do so. Trudeau, ignoring the will of the House of Commons, also refused to remove Johnston.
Despite many faults, O’Toole did take a hard stance against Communist China as leader of the Conservatives
In February 2022, the majority of CPC MPs voted to oust O’Toole as party leader for his failure to speak out against COVID mandates and for not supporting the Freedom Convoy.
While leader of the CPC, O’Toole did, however, have a positive record of accomplishment in calling out communist China.
In the 2021 federal election, O’Toole, despite being weak on the pro-life front, took a hard stance against the CCP. One of the party’s 2021 platforms included confronting the CCP’s human rights abuses.
In early 2021, O’Toole said that China should not be allowed to host the 2022 Winter Olympics due to their “genocide” of the Uyghurs.
Even though O’Toole used the word “genocide” to describe the treatment of the Uyghurs in China, Trudeau said using the term “genocide” was “extremely loaded.”
In recent weeks, the depths of CCP meddling in Canadian politics have reached a breaking point.
A few weeks ago, Conservative MP Michael Chong disclosed that he has been personally threatened multiple times by what he believes are agents of Communist China and said he had to call the police due to safety concerns.
A few weeks ago, it was revealed that he and his family were targets of spying and intimidation tactics by a now-expelled Chinese diplomat who worked in Canada for the Communist Chinese government.
Recently, retired Canadian spy Michel Juneau-Katsuya said that anyone involved in Communist China’s meddling in Canada’s elections and government affairs should get “jail” time and not just a slap on the wrist, adding that such actions are a form of treason.
As for Trudeau’s Johnston, when he stepped down in 2017 as Governor General, Trudeau referred to him as a “family friend.”
Johnston had also recalled fondly his close relationship with the Trudeau family in media interviews before he was appointed “special rapporteur.”
Johnston was listed as a member of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation, whose entire board of directors and CEO and president resigned last month after a report surfaced detailing how the non-profit group received a $200,000 donation that was alleged to be connected to the CCP.
After the scandal broke, his name disappeared from its website.