Graham Hughes The Canadian Press According to the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, the scope of foreign interference stops at the borders of the federal level.
China's alleged interference in federal elections does not seem to have affected the Quebec electoral system. Neither Élections Québec nor the Sûreté du Québec found any evidence that foreign countries were able to interfere in any past general election campaign.
In Ottawa, the federal government of Justin Trudeau had to respond to a series of questions from opposition parties this week following reports that China has been working to get the Liberal Party of Canada re-elected in September 2021. A public inquiry is still not ruled out.< /p>
However, if we trust the words of the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, the scope of foreign interference stops at the borders of the federal level. “We do not believe that there was a structured campaign of disinformation targeting the Quebec electoral process and coming from abroad during the last provincial elections. We also do not believe that there was illegal political funding from abroad,” said Élections Québec spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud Drolet.
The independent organization also maintains that it has not been the target of any computer intrusion.
Could foreign countries have worked for the election of certain governments before the October 2022 election? “No”, was satisfied to answer the Sûreté du Québec in a telephone exchange with Le Devoir.
“In light of the information currently available to us, we do not believe that there has been a structured campaign of disinformation […] from abroad during previous provincial elections,” added Elections Quebec. when revived on this subject.
These remarks join those of Prime Minister François Legault, who said Thursday in a press scrum that he had “no indications that there would have been interference” .
In Ottawa, the Global television network and the Toronto daily The Globe and Mail have reported in recent months that China allegedly interfered in the Canadian elections in both 2019 and in 2021. The reports, which rely on unnamed sources within federal security agencies, suggest that Chinese consulates worked in the last two elections to get Chinese-Canadian communities to support the Liberal Party, to the detriment of the Conservative Party.
The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections is looking into a total of 158 complaints about 10 situations related to the 2019 election and 16 complaints about 13 situations related to the 2021 election.
