Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Government leader, The Globe and Mail has reported extensively on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, documents which reveal the extent to which the Communist regime in Beijing interfered in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections — through financing, threats, intimidation, the denial of visas, disinformation campaigns and more — all to arrive at their preferred outcome of a Liberal minority government and to defeat the Conservatives.

None of this would come as a surprise to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister and his office knew about it, did nothing to stop it and kept it hidden from Canadians. We all know why — it’s because he benefited from it, leader.

Two weeks ago, the Prime Minister claimed the reports about foreign interference in our election had “so many inaccuracies.” Leader, what were these inaccuracies?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question, colleague. We can all agree, despite differences of opinion, that this is a serious matter. This government is taking this very seriously. Protecting our democratic institutions, preserving the integrity of our elections and ensuring that our system is resilient against attempts by foreign actors to interfere are all high priorities — and these are priorities for every member, I’m sure, in this chamber, every parliamentarian and, indeed, every Canadian.

The government is taking this seriously. There is no evidence, as a number of reports have indicated, that the elections were compromised. This was made clear in Morris Rosenberg’s report.

Indeed, the former Conservative national campaign manager Fred DeLorey is on record as saying that, without a shadow of a doubt, the outcome of the election “. . . was not influenced by any external meddling.”

That’s not the end of the story. The important questions are what steps are being taken both to protect our institutions and to understand the full extent of the actions that were taken, and what measures are being taken to combat them?

In this regard, the approach that the Prime Minister has announced to empower the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, or NSICOP, and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, or NSIRA, and the appointment of a special rapporteur are all measures designed to get to the bottom of this in a responsible and prudent way.