Robert Fife and Stephen Chase
Globe and Mail, Mar. 2, 2023
“Classified documents revealed the campaign’s goals were to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned in 2021 and that certain Conservative candidates identified by China were defeated.”
China appears to have targeted Justin Trudeau in a foreign influence operation after he became Liberal Leader in 2013, according to a national security source who said Beijing’s plan involved donating a significant sum of money to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
The source said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service captured a conversation in 2014 between an unnamed commercial attaché at one of China’s consulates in Canada and billionaire Zhang Bin, a political adviser to the government in Beijing and a senior official in China’s network of state promoters around the world.
They discussed the federal election that was expected to take place in 2015, and the possibility that the Liberals would defeat Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and form the next government. The source said the diplomat instructed Mr. Zhang to donate $1-million to the Trudeau Foundation, and told him the Chinese government would reimburse him for the entire amount.
The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, who risks prosecution under the Security of Information Act. Mr. Zhang did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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