.Bloggers note: This rush job inquiry better produce smoking guns. The PMO and PCO s were more concerned with partisan thinking and I bet you there is Much more to to uncover . this goes back to 2014-15
VIDEO .
some highlights there from the national
inquiry into foreign elections interference tomorrow we're going to get the first report from Justice Marie Jose o after hearing testimony from past and present politicians alongside this country's National Security apparatus on alleged attempts by Foreign governments to influence Canadian elections here to break down what we've learned so far and what to expect tomorrow are the two reporters who have led this file the globa males Ottawa bureau chief Robert F and their senior parliamentary reporter Steve Chase hello to both of you good to have you here Bob let's start off first of all just explaining to Canadians who weren't following everything what tomorrow symbolizes there's two phases to this inquiry and phase one essentially the the conclusion gets released tomorrow yeah what you're looking at is What affected foreign interference have in the 2019 and 2021 election campaigns there won't be recommendations this is just going to be uh whether she is going to say to us that um we I'm Shi will say that they did not affect the overall result of the election campaign but will she make a comment on whether it might have depress the vote in uh in certain writings uh you know why did the Prime Minister and his top Aid seem to ignore a lot of this information will she be critical of him or will she be critical of the of the CIS can security intelligence service will she say to them hey you should have pounded the table a lot a lot harder or will she say that the uh senior civil servants who were responsible for election oversight that they didn't do their job by failing to inform uh members of parliament or political parties of the extent of this foreign interference none of that we don't know what she's going to say um it's pure guesswork uh and then the next phase of the inquiry will deal with recommendations to deal with foreign interference and we think it'll probably also uh scope out a little more about the role that India Iran and Russia also played in uh in foreign interference not election interference but foreign interference right because some of that was brought up in this first phase but Steve the majority was on the kind of stuff you two were reporting on from the beginning and that is China more specifically how much do you anticipate what just the Justice lays out tomorrow will actually be like I've decided this happened or this happened or this happened versus remember back to the special Raa tour and just sort of like it wasn't a big you know it wasn't end of the world and the reasons I arrived at that conclusion are you know secret and I can't share them with you I think that they're going to focus Communications I think the problem that David Johnson did identify that was a I think one of the best parts of his report was that there's terrible Communications inside the government to stakeholders and so on I don't think frankly they had long enough to make uh to sort of Plum the depths of our election campaigns this was a rushed deal uh and I think and frankly it should have been they should have taken a lot longer so I think they're going to focus more on uh how did what do we know how do we respond and did we do a good job of it and do you think that that uh will involve some assessment Bob of the government's I mean we heard just to be blunt to everyone we heard from the Prime Minister he testified during this we heard from the four top staffers in his office we heard some push back to some of what they presented around intelligence from the director of Canada spy agency himself like do you how much do you that factors into this I don't know how uh she's going to respond her the commission lawyers seem to be uh focused on process whereas the lawyers for the political parties and the dispor communities I thought asked better questions but in certainly we got information not only from documents that were tabled but the prime minister in his top AIDS view was that uh a election inter interference did not affect the overall results of election which nobody disputes that um you can't believe everything that cesa says um you know I they they they get things wrong too and these views that uh some Chinese officials are recorded by cus are saying that they prefer the Liberals over the conservatives well some of them might say that but not everybody and that bragging is not doing so there was a lot from the prime minister's office of downplaying this election interference by by China and I don't know whether she's going to accept the prime minister's version of event or question it uh but you know the CIS director was recalled after the prime minister's testimony he said look I did tell him all this stuff um I guess that's sort of Steve what I left feeling a bit confused about because I think that the documents that we saw clearly outlined that the threat was a very serious one some of the evidence presented through firsthand accounts also would would have supported that conclusion then the CIS director says that's I conveyed but to be fair to the Prime Minister and the people around him they made some good points as well about intelligence not necessarily being evidence about instances where they had push back for example on cus and it turned out that in those instances cus was wrong um like how what what do you walkway feeling do they perceive it to be serious have they acted like it was serious I think that one of the things that came out of the hearings was that they were focused on a completely different type of threat they looked at the 2016 US election they looked at the R interference or alleged interference and they built a system to deal with Russia almost ainal line and that it was pointed the wrong way and they were not ready for Chinese State interference which one of the most important Guardians in Canadian National Security cus was saying is the foremost aggressor what about I guess then sort of jumping off of that Bob the idea that um as you mentioned a few times it's it's universally accepted that the full outcome of the even the people who were testifying like Arin nool and others weren't saying that the the overall outcome of the election was called into a question why does it matter if at a more granular level it was impacted okay well look nobody disputes that uh there was Chinese disinformation uh both on We Chat on the the propaganda arm of the global uh Global times but also in Chinese media and radio against the conservatives Mr otula says he thinks that they lost five to to nine seats on the result of this because the votes were suppressed in heavily Chinese Canadian writings the cons the Liberals say he's a sore loser uh there's no evidence that it was just close elections and they lost and they lost because they had such a hawkish um U platform that was against uh China that had turned off Chinese voters that's a kind of we don't know what the just OG's going to say but that's the kind of thing she's got to make a a decision on and also it comes down to um I think there was a valid point too is that the senior civil servants who were overseeing the election particularly in the 2021 election did not think it affected the O even the individual writings uh and they did not think that the disinformation was serious enough to warn political parties about it even though their own documents say that they China was doing this so whether she might say that you know we really need to have more independent Watchdog agencies overlooking elections rather than civil servants who rely upon the Prime Minister for their jobs basically I don't know what she's gonna I mean again we don't know right one of the themes that came out was the impunity with which foreign actors are operating and I don't think anyone disputed that the the idea that they see Canada as a lowrisk high reward playground for foreign interference and so the implication is it's going to get worse and so we are we're a high trust Society we're an open Society we don't have a lot of surveillance we don't have a huge national security surveillance apparatus so what cus has found is a warning of what more is to come it's going to get worse if you don't step in just really one quick really one very quick pardon me followup for you Steve so much has been made about the way that this was handled the process how long it took to arrive at at the possibility of an inquiry do you think the government does anything else tomorrow other than say I accept these findings in full I think that they've got a package of national security measures ready uh we had some sense that it was going to come already but they've clearly decided to wait for the response and then they come forward with a number of measures which could include allowing cus to speak more plainly and openly to people it will could include and very much should include I think Accord if you listen to the politicians who gathered on the hill yesterday a foreign influence registry question is how long they wait before announcing that these measures are moving forward my my guess is maybe right after the report if it's really bad it'll happen right after the report see yeah thank you so much both you appreciate making the time for the discussion Bob five and Steve Chase with the Globe and Mail coming
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