Ezra Levant’s China inquiry exposes systemic failures where CSIS and RCMP ignored intimidation of MPs like Kenny Chu (turnout dropped from 60.25% in 2015 to 52.77% in 2021) and Michael Chong, who claims Conservative losses in key ridings stemmed from PRC interference—including Han Dong’s suspicious nomination via non-citizen votes. Levant ties this to his China Virus claims, alleging Trudeau’s "Manchurian candidate" role was validated while Rebel News faced partisan legal harassment. The hearings reveal Canada’s institutions prioritizing domestic optics over foreign threats, leaving democracy vulnerable under Trudeau’s leadership. [Automatically generated summary]
Hey, you've got to see the video version of today's podcast.
I mean, sure, you'll get, you'll understand it through the podcast, but I really want you to see it because there are video clips.
We're going to show about 10 of them from the inquiry into foreign influence in Canada, China's interference on our elections.
Stunning video clips from the Commission of Inquiry.
To do that, you need to be a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
It's a video version of the show.
It's just eight bucks a month.
Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month, and not only will you get the great video content, but you'll be supporting Rebel News because we don't take a dime from Trudeau.
All right, here's today's show.
Tonight, shocking revelations from the inquiry into foreign influence in Canadian elections.
It's April 4th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious whoo-bug.
Did you get an understanding on September 18, 2023, why CSIS was only giving you a briefing then about foreign interference that took place for an election two years earlier?
It wasn't explained to me, no.
Mr. Chu, in connection with the 2019 and 2021 general election, can you please comment on the usefulness or lack of usefulness of CSIS, the RCMP, and any other Canadian security apparatus efforts to track and combat foreign interference?
In 2019, perhaps it was still at the time of being established and also running through teething problems, et cetera, et cetera.
But I participated in the 43rd election, 2019 election, without much anticipation of mechanism that would counter foreign interference.
And then throughout my two years at the House of Commons, I've learned about these, what I've termed the alphabet soup, GAC, it's Global Affairs Canada, CSIS, of course, everybody knows, the CITAS for security and intelligence threats to Elections Task Force, and then so on and so forth.
There's RM, P5, NC COP, CSE, CCE, ESCC, and then CIEPP, all these.
So the impression I have is it's a well-resourced net of protective mechanism.
And so I gradually developed what is now to me, it's a false sense of security.
And that's why I was deeply disappointed after 2021 election.
Hey, did you ever see that book I wrote so quickly?
I just punched it out in six weeks in the spring of 2020.
That's when the pandemic became a panic.
The lockdown started.
I was trying to figure things out.
I called the book China Virus because I saw the attempt from the People's Republic of China to rename it something else.
But my book had a bit of a twist.
I said that the real China virus wasn't so much COVID-19, but rather China's communist ideology was sort of sneaking its way into Canada through Justin Trudeau because he had compromised himself.
And in that book, four years ago, I documented and collected the evidence we had that the People's Republic of China was commanding undue influence in Canada, mainly through cash to Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party, the Trudeau Foundation, et cetera.
The book did its job, but here we are four years later, and now I can say that whatever was in that book was maybe 1% of what was actually going on.
And the thesis of the book that Trudeau himself was the China virus, was the Manchurian candidate, has been utterly proven, especially in the last few days, as there has been a proper inquiry into the subject.
And our friend and chief reporter, Sheila Gunn Reed, has been watching that inquiry all day, live tweeting it and cutting little video clips.
And I've been watching them out of the corner of my eye, and they're absolutely stunning.
I thought, instead of a monologue from me, let's bring Sheila on the show and basically have her walk us through half a dozen, or if we have time for it, as many as 10 video clips.
Because what is being disclosed in this commission is shocking.
And I want you to hear it from the woman who has been following every minute of it.
So without further ado, let me bring onto the channel, my friend Sheila Gunnreed.
Sheila, thanks for taking the time.
I know we're on a break in the commission, so you've got only about 45 minutes with us.
Yeah, covering this commission has been wild because like you, I thought I knew a lot about this, but it's even worse than what we knew as members of the public and as journalists.
And it is surprising the lack of communication between the security intelligence agencies.
As Kenny Chu, a conservative candidate who was an MP who was targeted by the PRC, says the Alphabet Soup agencies, of which there were 15, none of them told him he was being targeted by the People's Republic of China in his writing, even though they knew.
And detailing the multiple ways that ethnic Chinese voters are being targeted and intimidated by the People's Republic of China in conservative writings.
And there's one NDP writing also where they were targeted because the conservatives had taken a hardline stance against China.
Now, back up for one second and set the stage.
Where is this commission physically?
Who is chairing it?
Is it a judicial commission?
Who appointed the judge?
Do you feel comfortable with the mandate of it?
Because I know there were questions before about, you know, do some of the Chinese suspects have more access to confidential documents than even, say, the conservative opposition.
Tell us a little bit about the commission itself before we jump into the videos, because I want our viewers to know, and I myself would like to know, is this a commission we can trust?
Or is it sort of, you know, an inside job like when Trudeau appointed Judge Rollo for the Emergencies Act inquiry?
So it is, I'm glad you mentioned the Emergencies Act inquiry.
It is very similar to that.
But I think this commission has an extra task.
They're cleaning up the mess of David Johnston.
So that was Justin Trudeau's family friend who is tasked with the initial investigation of Chinese meddling.
And wouldn't you know it, a liberal friend investigated the liberals and found zero meddling and no reason for an inquiry.
So, this is the result of just how blatant that cover-up was.
So, I think this will be far more transparent.
It is very similar to the Public Order Emergency Commission in that there are witnesses that are called up.
They are going through their initial witness statements to the commission by commission lawyers, and then they are being examined by interveners and interested parties, including the Conservative Party of Canada, multiple lawyers from human rights organizations, lawyers representing Ukrainian and Russian democracy advocates.
So, it seems like there's a lot of people involved.
However, there's always, as is with these things, not a lot of time for cross-examination.
Do you remember how this came about?
Was this a Trudeau commission or was this a parliamentary commission?
Again, not that it matters too much, but of course, Trudeau would have every instinct to make it a kind of cover-up.
As you mentioned, he hand-picked David Johnson.
And by the way, what a disgrace.
That man led an exemplary life and he was governor general and he should have gone out on a high note, but then he allowed himself to be used in such partisan ways.
I just really don't know why he tarnished his reputation by being such a useful idiot.
Anyhow, who set up this commission?
Was it Trudeau?
Was it Parliament?
Who's the boss of it?
Is it Judge Hoag?
Did I get that right?
Yes, Justice Hoag, Marie-Jose Hoag.
She was appointed to the Court of Appeal in Quebec in 2015.
This was pushed for by the opposition parties.
So technically, it's a parliamentary commission, much like, I guess, the Public Order Emergency Commission.
And I mean, I thought during the Public Order Emergency Commission that things were happening fairly, but as it turns out, the fix was in at the end anyway.
So I guess we won't know how fair this is until the bitter end.
But what we do know and what we have now, we don't need some judge to tell us, is the testimony.
And some of it has been amazing.
So without further ado, let's jump right in.
And you have been cutting these clips while you're watching it.
You're live tweeting, you're video clipping.
You're doing three jobs in one.
Why Wuhan Matters00:15:15
Why don't you take us through these?
And I have not seen most of these, Sheila.
So let's watch them together and you can tell me and our audience what's interesting about them.
So our producer, Olivia, has sort of put them in a rough order, and we may as well go through it that way.
So why don't we play the first one and then we'll come right back to you to help us unpack it.
Is that a good way to do it?
Sure.
Okay, so let's jump in straight to the first video.
It was surreal.
But when we looked at the voter turnout rate and also in light of some of the misinformation that has been drowning many of the constituents, we understand what happened a little bit better.
The voter turnout rate in Stefs and Richmond Ease in the past three elections has been continuously dropping from 2015's 60.25% to 2019's 56.94% to 2021's 52.77%.
In other words, over 3,000 eligible voters did not vote in 2021 when they had voted just mere 23 months ago.
And my opponents garner the number of votes that he garnered was actually lower than The vote that I had in the 2015 election.
The 2015 election in which you lost.
Yes, that's right.
I lost, but I had 16,630.
So, what you're saying is you had a higher vote count in 2016 during the election loss than your opponent had in 2021 for an election victory.
Correct.
The man on the right, is that Kenny Chu?
That's the conservative MP or was he just a candidate?
No, he was a conservative MP for Stevenson Richmond in British Columbia.
And that was one of the writings that was targeted by the People's Republic of China.
And what he's explaining there has been the theme of a lot of the Chinese intimidation tactics that not only Kenny Chu testified to, but also Jenny Kwong from the NDP.
So what happened is that, as we know, in Canadian elections, how you vote isn't public.
But if you voted is available to the party.
And what happened was the liberal candidate won the riding with fewer votes than Kenny Chu lost the first time around.
And what he's saying is, and he testified to it later, and so did Jenny Kwan, is that Chinese voters, ethnically Chinese voters, and his writing is 50% ethnically Chinese, they were so afraid of voting in an election where the conservative candidate might win that they didn't even want their names to turn up on the voter roll.
And so that's how the liberal candidate won.
It wasn't so that in his writing, that candidate or that votes were driven to the liberal, because that wasn't the case.
The Chinese voters were intimidated to stay home because you could face ramifications if you had voted in an election in a riding where the conservative won.
And there's these all Chinese social media apps, not Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or any Canadian-American things.
They're like, I think one of them is called WeChat, and they're run out of China.
They're an all-Chinese language.
They have their news feeds.
You do business with them.
And it was a Niagara Falls of anti-conservative propaganda.
And I mean, I hate the phrase disinformation because Trudeau uses it against any of his critics, including us.
But in this case, it actually was the Chinese government lying to Canadian Chinese people about the conservatives and about the election and terrifying them.
Yes.
The disinformation that targeted Kenny Chu was because he proposed a foreign agents registry.
And the disinformation that was floating around WeChat, where a lot of this is organizing, was that it would basically stifle the free speech of ethnically Chinese voters.
And they were being told that they would be censored in Canada because of his proposed foreign agents registry.
And Olivia, I'm going to put you on the spot.
And I want to go to a clip.
And it was the dumbest question of the day, which was naturally asked by a lawyer for Justin Trudeau's Attorney General.
And there was a lot of victim blaming happening, to use the language of the left.
The lawyer asked, well, Kenny Chu, if they were lying about you on WeChat, why didn't you just go to WeChat, go on WeChat and try to combat the disinformation that was being organized by the PRC against you there?
And Kenny answered in a way that, I mean, the AG should have known better because these are government and parliamentary rules that Kenny was referring to.
The member of parliament, the House of Commons has prohibited us from using WeChat when I was a member of parliament because of security concern.
It was just weeks ago I was an MP, and then during the election, I'm not.
And knowing the danger that I'm submitting myself to, we have made a conscious decision not to get a WeChat account nor engage with people on WeChat.
Isn't that interesting?
So, I mean, WeChat is a Chinese government-controlled spyware, malware.
It also does commerce.
It also is social media.
But it is a tool of espionage, a tool of political operation.
And isn't that a fascinating thing that he was actually forbidden by Canadian security rationale for going on there?
Isn't that amazing?
And that the liberals lawyer would ask him that shows, well, it shows a lot of things.
Thank you for that clip.
Let's keep going.
Why don't you choose the next video?
I see Olivia has laid them out, but why don't you choose the next one to make sure we're doing the story justice?
Go ahead.
Sure.
So another one of the themes from the commission testimony on Wednesday was that the liberals were using accusations of racism, anti-Asian racism, to shut up Asian conservative MPs who were raising concerns on behalf of their Asian constituents.
And one of the things that they used this shutuppery on was questions about the Winnipeg Biolab.
And Kenny Chu testifies to that.
Well, it was during the pandemic.
And I remember it was just months before that, before the parliament rises or arose.
We started the discussion and trying to find fact-finding on the Winnipeg National Microbiology Lab, what happened, under what circumstances the scientists were dismissed, their security clearance removed.
And there was a lot of talk about anti-Asian racism, even coming from the government MPs and even the prime ministers in response to our questioning.
And as I explained to you, Madam Commissioner, I have a very high regard of Canada's democracy.
And it was a very disillusioned moment when I see that the Parliament of Canada had asked four times for documents for the National Microbiology Lab situations.
And the government keep on ignoring it and even took the parliament represented by the speaker to court.
And then when that didn't work, the government decided or the governing party decided to pull a plug and call an election on that in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic that we are suffering.
So it was a very chaotic moment.
It was also a very polarized moment.
People, you know, there have been supportive of the mandate, you know, against mandates, masking, and all that.
So here you have Kenny Chu, who's a Chinese Canadian, who talks about his love for democracy.
He's worried about China.
He's calling for a foreign agent registry.
He's curious about these Chinese agents who, as we now know, stole viruses from the, I mean, for all we know, the COVID-19 virus came from Canada.
I mean, we still don't have the truth about what was stolen.
I understand that they may have stolen the Ebola virus.
And Trudeau is up to his eyeballs on this and calling anyone racist and blocking it.
It's painful to see Kenny Chu, who wants to put his best foot forward as a patriotic Canadian, be roughed up by this.
Trudeau really is a racist when you think about it.
You know, we've got one more clip from Kenny Chu on this, and he talks about how insulting it was to him as a Chinese Canadian, a patriotic Chinese Canadian, who testified that the Tiananmen Square catastrophe was a watershed moment for him.
It was then he knew that he had to be a Canadian, and he so loves Canada and democracy that he cut ties with his Hong Kong family the second he decided to run for the school board because he knew it would put them under threat.
And here he was fighting for Canada, being called a racist in the House of Commons by Justin Trudeau, a privileged white man.
For somebody who voice up for the benefit of Canada in the House of Commons, when I heard hurtful remarks, not just from any MP, but from the Prime Minister of Canada when we ask about the Wuhan virus, when we ask, why are we not shutting down flights from Wuhan in early 2020?
Because of our constituents who are from China asking us, why are we exposing Canada to that?
So we asked that question in the House of Commons.
The answer has always been, you know, mindful of racism, you know, don't be an anti-Asian.
To me, as an Asian Canadian, it's very insulting.
And for that to come from the top leader of our country, it's doubling insult with injury, doubling injury with insults.
That's incredible.
I remember that.
It was Chinese Canadians who knew about SARS from the last time around.
And they said, what are you doing letting these people come in from Wuhan?
It's interesting that Kenny Chu called it the Wuhan virus.
I know, I thought that too.
And because, oh, you can't say that.
That's racist.
Say this, you know, meaningless word COVID-19.
No, he called it the, I mean, I love the fact that he's still calling it the Wuhan virus because that's where it's from.
And that's what it's called.
And that's what the Chinese community obviously called it.
And I recall that it was Chinese Canadians who first said, stop the flights from Wuhan, and we didn't.
And it's insane.
And this is so illustrative of the fact that not only was all of Canada harmed, but they were targeting Chinese Canadians who dared to put Canada first.
Very interesting.
There was another MP, Michael Chong, who I think is ethnically, he's half Chinese, but again, Chinese Canadian, loyal to Canada, proud, patriotic Canadian.
Let's hear from him, because I understand you've got a few video clips of Michael Chong.
Why don't you set up the first one?
I understand that he's done the math and he thinks that the Conservative Party may have actually lost the last election because of Chinese interference.
At least in some writings, for sure.
He was asked by the commission lawyer, how he concluded that the Conservative Party of Canada was harmed by Chinese interference in the last election.
And he just went off on a list.
Let's take a look.
I would say that the Conservative Party was affected in about half a dozen writings by the foreign interference threat activities directed by the government of the People's Republic of China.
And what do you base that understanding on?
I base that on a number of analyses that have been done subsequent to the 2021 election, three analyses in particular, and the analysis done by the rapid response mechanism of Global Affairs Canada during the writ period that indicated that the Chinese Communist Party was likely behind the disinformation operations conducted against MP Kenny Chu during that campaign.
I base it on the digital forensic lab analysis done by the Atlantic Council in November of 2021 that went through the various social media posts that had been posted during the election and came to a similar conclusion.
And thirdly, I base it on the analysis of the research done by Canada Research Chair at McGill University, Dr. Benjamin Feng and his associate.
I also base it on my own analysis of the drop in turnout for conservative candidates in these half a dozen writings during the 2021 period, which was a market change from previous elections.
I base it on the firsthand accounts of former colleagues like MP Kenny Chu, MP Bob Soroya, MP Alice Wong, and others.
And I base it on some of the accounts of what happened in the roundtables that I hosted subsequent to the 2021 election.
So that's what I base it on.
You know, that's pretty incredible.
Kenny Chu And The Diplomat Incident00:06:37
It's election denialism.
That's a phrase that the left uses sometimes.
And it's funny because I remember, I'm old enough to remember when it was George Bush versus Al Gore, and it went down to hanging Chads in Florida and it went to the Supreme Court.
And every Democrat denied that George W. Bush was the legitimate president and Al Gore wouldn't cooperate with the transition.
And, you know, they were election deniers and they were election deniers when Trump won in 2016.
But then if anyone raised skeptical questions in 2020, you were a crazy conspiracy theorist, January 6th, insurrectionists, and should be charged with a crime.
So the Democrats in the United States are of two minds on election denial.
If you're denying that Republicans win, you're sound.
If you're denying that Joe Biden won the largest result in history, you're a conspiracy theorist.
Here you have Michael Chong, who's a very thoughtful guy who said, well, I'm citing this professor and this study and this scholar.
Like he was so calm about it.
But he basically said, I dispute the election results in half a dozen writings, not dispute them.
Like he's not saying they were miscounted.
He was saying they were tampered with.
They were meddled.
They were interfered with.
The vote was suppressed by a foreign interference campaign.
That's about as categorical as it gets.
Let me ask you, have you seen him, have you seen that attempt to smear him like we see in the United States?
Or, I mean, his demeanor, and frankly, he's a bit of a red Tory, like he's the most right-wing guy out there.
So, and the way he scholarly laid it out there, it's pretty tough to call him a right-wing insurrectionist.
He certainly doesn't look the part.
How has his comment been?
Have you followed at all, how he's been reacted to?
Or are they just ignoring him?
Is the mainstream media and the Liberal Party and the establishment just ignoring him because you don't want to rebut him?
You don't want to give him any oxygen.
You don't want to give any more air to this guy?
Well, here's the thing.
You can't really rebut Kenny Chu and Michael Chong because they were both targeted by the PRC.
And we know Michael Chong, and we've got a clip of this.
Michael Chong was threatened.
He was targeted right out of the Chinese consulate.
There was a Chinese diplomat that was named Persona Nongrada, kicked out of the country for targeting Michael Chong.
So it's kind of hard to go after Michael Chong when we all know that a diplomat was kicked out of the country because of the specific targeting of him.
And here's the thing, with both Kenny Chu and Michael Chong, the alphabet soup of agencies.
So you mean like CSIS and RCMP and there are 15 alphabet soup agencies, as Kenny Chu calls them, that are tasked with keeping our elections safe, keeping our politicians safe from foreign influence.
Not a single one of these agencies let Kenny Chu or Michael Chong know that they were being targeted while they were being targeted.
Kenny Chu said, I was drowning.
I didn't know it.
And they were watching me drown.
And Michael Chong talks about what he would have done differently to protect his own safety had somebody at some point made him aware that he was a target of People's Republic of China targeting.
We've got that clip.
Well, I am an MP who represents a riding that is partly in the greater Toronto area as a result.
You know, I'm often in downtown Toronto.
You know, I'm often at the University of Toronto talking to experts in a range of policy areas at the Monk International, the Monk School of International Affairs, which happens to be located at St. George and Blur Street.
And just up the street, a mere matter of blocks is the PRC consulate where this particular diplomat, Mr. Wei Zhou, worked.
So it would have been nice to know that this individual was targeting me so that I could have at least been aware of my surroundings and to ensure that nothing nefarious was going on.
So those are the kinds of things that I think elected officials and Canadians more broadly need to be made aware of.
If we're not aware of these things, we go about our business, you know, not thinking about these things.
I mean, it's not unthinkable that the Chinese government would do something to him physically.
I don't know if that's their style, but at the very least, they would be spying on him, tracking him.
That's absolutely their style.
It is shocking.
You know what?
I'm reminded in the United Kingdom, and I know this because our friend Tommy Robinson, there's a rule in the UK, if the government has credible information that you're under threat of murder, they have a legal obligation to come to you in person and give you a written, it's called an Osmond warning, saying, here's what we know, here's the risk to your life, now you know, so you can't blame us for hiding it from you.
Now, that's a terrifying letter to get, because what can you do about it?
But at least you're not walking around, you know, whistling, thinking everything's fine.
There's a legal requirement for police to tell you you're under threat.
And I'm not sure how broadly we want to make that, but I would think that if a major superpower is threatening you, is spying on you, is mounting a campaign against you, there better be a bloody good reason you didn't tell the guy.
But I think in this case, it's obvious what the reason is, because Justin Trudeau was the beneficiary of all this.
That's why these opposition MPs, that's why Kenny Chu and Michael Chong were not told, because Justin Trudeau was the beneficiary.
He was the one cashing the checks at the Trudeau Foundation.
He was the one that was bending our policy to favor Beijing.
And of course, he's not going to ring the alarm because he was the guy who was profiting from this.
Justin Trudeau has corrupted our national security system for the purpose of votes.
How could it be more obvious?
Well, and Michael Chong went through this horrific scenario that I had never thought of.
Liberal Nomination Contests00:11:26
Over the last three days of testimony, we've heard just how loosey-goosey the liberal nomination process is.
Right.
For example, in Handong's riding, a bus of foreign national Mandarin-speaking high school students from a school outside of his riding were bused in to magically vote for him.
And he doesn't really know how the bus was organized.
And that's just how easy it can be.
That all you have to do is say, I'm a member of the Liberal Party, and then you can vote.
There's no bar for entry like with other parties where you have to pony up some dough and prove who you are.
You don't have to do that for the liberals.
I was reminded recently that by my wife that there was a bus with students coming to vote.
And so Michael Chong goes through this doomsday scenario where if you flooded the leadership of the party with these paper voters from God knows where, you could get yourself a prime minister who is selected by the PRC.
Mr. Chong, just a couple of questions.
At paragraph 20 of your interview summary, we don't need to go there, but you recall that you said that nomination rules are vulnerable to foreign interference.
Is that right?
That's correct.
And the Commission has heard evidence that rules for nomination contests are similar to those for leadership contests, because if you're a registered member, you can vote in a leadership contest.
And I wondered if you, the concerns that you have about nomination contests would also apply to leadership contests.
Yes, the concerns I have about nomination contests apply to leadership contests.
In fact, my concern about leadership contests are even greater than my concern about nomination contests.
And here's why.
The nomination contest is not the end of the matter.
When a person is elected or selected as the candidate for a registered political party, there has been a subsequent, very important step, which is the election or by-election to elect that individual to the House of Commons.
No such second step exists for the election of a party leader.
And so if the vulnerabilities that have been exposed in testimony today and yesterday are in place for the election of a leader of a party, particularly of a party that has the majority of seats or commands the majority of support in the House of Commons, we are heads of government in this country, including prime ministers and premiers, to this foreign interference.
I think of my late colleague, the Honorable Jim Prentiss.
When Jim Prentiss was appointed premier of the province of Alberta, he was a private citizen.
He was no different than anybody walking down Wellington Street today who was appointed by the lieutenant governor of the province of Alberta to be full premier of that province.
He did not have a seat in the Legislative Assembly of the province of Alberta.
He had simply been elected as leader of the Alberta PC party.
And what has happened in recent decades, both at the provincial and the federal level, is that party caucuses have deferred the election, the selection of party leaders to the registered political parties.
And so we could have a situation here in Canada where a prime minister resigns from office.
The registered political party conducts an election for the leader.
That election, if subject to the same kind of rules that some of the parties have outlined here today and yesterday at the commission, would result in the appointment of a prime minister who does not have a seat in the House of Commons and who was elected through a process that was significantly compromised by non-citizens and by foreign state actors.
And so that's why I think that's why I'm very concerned, not just about some of the evidence that we've heard here in front of the commission with respect to party nominations, but also how it relates to the appointment of heads of government, particularly the appointment of a prime minister by the governor general.
That is absolutely terrifying.
I never thought of that.
Yeah.
If Handong can bring in a school bus of non-citizen Chinese nationals who don't even speak English, they come in by bus and ta-da, they vote for him and he's the liberal candidate.
And in certain writings, you're the liberal candidate, you're the MP.
I mean, but Michael Chong says there is that last check and balance.
It's not much of a check and balance in certain writings where the liberals are a shoe-in.
But you could choose the prime minister of a country that way.
And of course, Justin Trudeau has brought in, I mean, I think there's 900,000 foreign students in Canada that Trudeau brought in last year alone.
600,000 temporary foreign workers.
Like right there, that's 1.5 million non-citizens.
And I'm not saying you could organize them all, but maybe you could get 100,000 of them.
And absolutely, that would be enough to win any nomination, or at least to dominate.
You could choose, I mean, the movie The Manchurian Candidate was about an ethnic American, like a born-in-America American, who was hypnotized to be some foreign operative.
Here, you just choose someone and install them.
That is incredible.
And there's no flaw in the logic described by Michael Chong there.
That absolutely could happen.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, we saw it happen in Handong's riding.
The students were bused in from outside of his riding.
He campaigned at a high school for international students outside of his riding.
And nobody thought that was weird whatsoever.
And then a bus of them magically appears on nomination day, and he ends up being nominated.
And nobody thinks it's weird whatsoever.
In fact, we've got testimony from the RCMP commissioner and deputy commissioner saying that they had no complaints, no investigations open into Handong's nomination at all at the time that it occurred.
I think we have that clip.
I don't recall having anything in writing or discussing.
Like I said, there's so many discussions that took place at the various deputy minister meeting, either a deputy minister, operation committee, another, there's a couple other DM meetings.
So I'm not quite sure if I did get that information.
And during GE 43 or 44, Commissioner, were you made aware of allegations of reported, quote, vote buying, end quote, in Richmond, British Columbia?
No, because I believe that that could have been the municipal matter, which didn't tie into our national security framework that we have.
Okay.
And same time frame, GE 43 or 44, were you made aware of any information in relation to Mr. Dong and alleged PRC foreign interference in the Don Valley North?
No, not to my recollection.
During GE 44, Commissioner, were you made aware of any information about alleged PRC foreign interference in the 2021 election?
I'm not 100% sure if it's during the election.
Like I said, building up to elections with the DM meetings that we've had, sometimes there's some briefings, some situational awareness briefings that are being provided.
But during the election period, I'm not 100% sure.
That's the commissioner and deputy commissioner of the RCMP.
And they're wearing their uniforms and they're so proud and they're loyal soldiers and they just couldn't care less.
They just, you know what, I want to tell you, Sheila, that in 2019, I wrote a book called The Libranos, and the cover of that book is sort of an homage to the TV show, The Sopranos.
Anyone over 40, or certainly over 50, knows that show.
It was just a joke, like a cover, but it was a real book.
And that so infuriated Elections Canada that they hired two 30-year veterans of the RCMP to investigate me, to interrogate me, to spend, I mean, they're still finding me in court.
It's been almost five years.
So my little book, because it embarrassed Justin Trudeau, has been the target of a five-year action investigation, prosecution.
There is no doubt in my mind that the evidence shows that Han Dong stole his riding with foreign votes, stole them.
And I'm sure it's true with Kenny Chu, and I'm sure it's true with the other half dozen writings that Michael Chong identifies.
I've seen enough evidence to be certain in my bones.
But those keystones go, well, I don't know.
Yeah, you know, it wasn't important because the boss told them, because the RCMP is truly Trudeau's Mounties.
They're partisan.
And me with my goofy little book has a four or five-year prosecution.
There's no way they've spent less than a million dollars hunting me these last five years.
And what am I?
I'm just some guy.
I'm just some blabber mouth.
I didn't steal a seat in the House of Commons for a foreign regime.
That is so appalling to me.
Do you know, Ezra?
I'm real glad you brought that up because that was one thing that came up in commission testimony last week before the Easter break.
And it came up under questioning by the Conservative Party of Canada's lawyer.
And I was watching intently because I find him very entertaining.
And a trap was being set and I didn't realize it was being set.
And it was top elections bureaucrats, the top three in the country from the three different election bureaucracies were all being examined by the Conservative Party of Canada's lawyer.
So he is asking them, you know, how much time did you spend on this investigation into a complaint in Jenny Kwan's riding?
Oh, you know, two investigators in 90 days, wrapped up tight and tidy.
How much time did you spend investigating what happened in Kenny Chu's riding?
You know, a couple of months, two investigators.
They work in pairs, as we found out.
And he goes through and he's asking them about all these investigations that they wrapped up really quickly with two investigators and found zero election violations whatsoever.
But then the lawyer asked about your book and how many investigators they put on your book and how many years of investigation they did on your book and how many judicial reviews and appeals that your book was subjected to to get what, you know, a thousand or so bucks in fines?
Four Years of Investigation00:05:26
It just showed their focus.
And at one point, a top elections bureaucrat said, we don't have to investigate all the complaints that we get, and we don't have to investigate them all because we don't always have all the resources that they need.
But they spared no expense going after you and your book while China was running amok during the election.
Were you also the commissioner, or were you the commissioner of Canada Elections when OCCE launched an investigation into certain activities carried out by Rebel News in connection with the 43rd general election?
What was the date?
I believe it was the election was called on September 11, 2019, and was held on October 21, 2019.
I believe the complaint emanated with respect to activities that commenced just before September 11.
I can certainly confirm that at that time I was the commissioner.
Perhaps refresh your memory, Rebel News is an organization associated with the individual whose name is Ezra Levant.
Is there ringing a bell?
Okay.
And yes.
Am I correct that there was an investigation that led to the deputy commissioner issuing two notices of violation against Rebel News and issuing an administrative monetary penalty in the amount of $1,500 for each penalty?
Does that sound familiar?
Answer two comments.
First of all, the link with foreign interference is not coming to me for the time being.
What you're saying about this case, I don't see foreign interference at all in the picture.
That said, yes, there was an amp that was issued against rebel news or two rebel news for.
Okay, and am I correct, Mr. Cote, that you were asked to review the deputy commissioner's decision and you did so, De Nalto?
Je continued.
I continue to mention that to my knowledge there was no foreign interference.
Yes.
Okay, we'll get to that.
And am I correct that you ended up agreeing with the deputy commissioner's determinations?
As I recall, I rejected the appeal or the request for reconsideration.
Yes.
Fair enough.
And am I correct that that was in or about July 2021?
I have no specific recollection.
Okay.
And am I correct that Rebel News sought judicial review in the federal court in respect of the NOVs and the AMP that had been issued by the OCCE?
Answered, that's what I understand, yes.
The review application was dismissed and your decision was upheld, Mr. Cote, correct?
Okay.
Answer yes.
The Strickland decision in that case was delivered in or about December 2023, correct?
Jeff.
Answer, I don't think so.
I think it was a bit earlier, but I don't have my memory of that.
Had become the commissioner?
Yes, that's correct.
Okay.
So, am I correct that from the time of receipt of initial complaint in that case in September 2019 through to investigation, through to administrative action, internal review, and then judicial review and decision, We're talking a period of well over four years that OCCE devoted expenses and resources in relation to this one particular instance of contravention of the Elections Act.
Who is the question for?
Investigation and the ultimate conclusion, over four years transpired in which your office had to devote resources and time to both investigate and to see it through to a final conclusion.
I don't have the dates here.
If the dates you're giving are correct, then the mathematical calculation would be correct too, I presume?
Would it be fair to say that while for investigations of breaches of the Elections Act by domestic actors, OCCE has allocated far greater resources and spent far more time in its enforcement activities than it has in respect of alleged breaches of the Act by foreign operators?
Do you understand?
In the abstract answer, Well, you will understand that in abstract it's difficult to answer such a question.
We would have to reconcile the work that was done during this whole period.
I came into my position in August 2022.
It's been a bit over a year and a half, so we'd have to see to answer you precisely.
We would have to look at all this information.
What I can tell you is that since I came in my position in August 2022, I said so publicly.
Every part was overturned for foreign interference in elections is an issue that I take and my staff take very seriously.
Vaccine Rappel and Snoozed Investigations00:05:23
I don't know if it was to you or to the previous lawyer.
There was some work that was done about the file that was closed.
There are some investigations that were launched of my own initiative, whereas we hadn't received any files with complaints.
So everything is looked into, and once again, this issue is taken very seriously.
With respect to complaints that you consider to be related to foreign interference, those are, on the whole, dealt with in a shorter time period than complaints relate other complaints relating to domestic actors.
Well, you know what?
I have been treated as an enemy of the state.
Every rebel has been.
David Menzies has been physically assaulted by Trudeau's bodyguards, by Christy Freeland's bodyguards.
We have been blocked by the same David Johnson, the same David Johnson that turned a blind eye to the Chinese influence.
He was the head of the Election Debates Commission that blocked us twice.
We had to go to federal court to get in to even participate in those election debates.
I don't know if you remember, here's one of my favorite reporters, Alexa Lavoie, asking a question of Justin Trudeau.
David Johnson had tried to block Alexa from getting in there.
Alexa put a great question.
Look at the contempt with which Trudeau answered her.
Bonjour M. Trudeau, Alexa pour Rebel News.
Donc M. Trudeau, je vais revenir rapidement sur ce qui s'est passé hier.
Vous avez déabolisé l'un des rares médias qui ne reçoit pas d'argent du gouvernement.
You have expressed your opinion in 1912.
If it was, if it was the case, the supreme federal courts of Texas.
Just scientifically, and I surrender.
My question is: Israel and more vaccines a monde.
He is in the name of their vaccine.
In the course of what we receive vaccine, it's plenty of vaccine.
My question is that Canadien deserts have a rappelle de vaccine.
The privilege relies on vaccines.
And you leave a question that Prime Minister ordered.
I part of my perspective on the organization that you have.
So look at that rage in his eyes.
He was disgusted that she was allowed in.
Justin Trudeau shows more hatred for patriotic Canadians like Rebel News and the Truckers than he does for foreign dictators who, by the way, have actually committed a genocide or ethnic cleansing of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province who kill the Falun Gong, who are ethnically cleansing Tibet.
Justin Trudeau has an admiration for that basic dictatorship and he hates democratic opposition in Canada.
I'm so glad you're covering this hearing.
What's the best place to find him?
Do we have a specialty website or is it just your Twitter feed or where can people find the rest of your coverage on this?
So our coverage, if they go to RebelNews.com, we've got an article there that accumulates all of my tweets or posts, I guess, now that Twitter's called X. You can go to my X feed.
It's very simple.
It's at Sheila Gunread.
You can see all the clips that are fit to cut as I'm going along throughout the day, trying to distill all this information down to relevant points.
And you can sign our petition at protectourdemocracy.ca.
Sheila, thanks for spending so much time with us.
And by the way, we didn't even scratch the surface on the clips.
There's so many clips.
And I recommend you follow Sheila Gunread on Twitter.
That's the name of her Twitter handle.
And I mean, these clips are astonishing.
And they're condemnation of China, but we know what China is.
It's a communist, totalitarian regime that seeks to undermine rivals, infiltrate industrial sabotage and espionage.
We know that's what China is.
What's so depressing to me is now we're figuring out who Canada is under Justin Trudeau, how the elections officers, the RCMP, these 15 Alphabet Soup agencies, how they have been put on snooze mode because these investigations would harm Justin Trudeau's prospects.
That's what I've learned over the last few days.
I haven't learned anything new about China, actually, but I've learned a lot more about Canada.
Last word to you, Sheila.
Canada's democracy, as Kenny Chu said, is drowning.
And these agencies are standing by and watching us sink, and they're not doing anything.
And, you know, things are far worse than we could ever imagine.
Wow.
Well, thanks for covering it.
And I'll keep an eye on your Twitter feed and your stories.