Senator Plett: My question was why this diplomat is still permitted to be here. You didn’t answer that.

Leader, we are constantly told by the Trudeau government to put our faith in a secret process led by a Trudeau Foundation member and Trudeau family friend to look into what the Prime Minister and his staff knew about Beijing’s interference.

As I asked Minister LeBlanc a week ago, how can someone who was targeted by Beijing send a written submission to a made-up Special Rapporteur? There is no way to contact him — although the minister said the Special Rapporteur met with Trudeau cabinet members, so they certainly know how to reach him. The minister said he would share this information. This was a week ago, leader, and there is still no answer.

We learned yesterday that the family of an MP was targeted and the Trudeau government knew about it for two years, but didn’t tell him and didn’t expel the diplomat. They haven’t expelled anyone, yet you cling to this rapporteur nonsense, leader. There is no credibility to the made-up rapporteur process. There never has been and never will be. Where is the full and open public inquiry that is so desperately needed?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): My question today is for the leader and member of the Liberal government of Canada. Leader, yesterday The Globe and Mail reported on the contents of a top-secret CSIS report from July 2021. This report claims that Beijing’s interference in our country involves a People’s Republic of China — PRC — diplomat in their Toronto consulate targeting family members of a Canadian member of Parliament “. . . to make an example of this MP and deter others from taking anti-PRC positions.”

The Globe and Mail says the member of Parliament who was targeted was Michael Chong, and it named a specific PRC diplomat who targeted Mr. Chong’s family in Hong Kong. This diplomat was also named earlier this year in another The Globe and Mail report on Beijing’s interference in our democracy.

Leader, why is this diplomat still permitted to be here? Why are his threats against an MP’s family of no concern to your government? Is it because Mr. Chong is a Conservative member of Parliament?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, it’s clear that the $200,000 gift the Trudeau Foundation received from the Communist regime in Beijing was part of their plan to influence Trudeau and to interfere with our democracy.

On Friday, Pascale Fournier, the former president of the Trudeau Foundation, told a House committee that her predecessor, Morris Rosenberg, misled Canadians when he said Beijing’s $200,000 gift to the foundation was Canadian money and not foreign money. Ms. Fournier says there are emails and receipts that reveal the truth: that an association tied to Beijing dictated the terms for transferring those funds.

Leader, in light of Ms. Fournier’s testimony last week, does your government still stand by its choice of Mr. Rosenberg to write the report on foreign interference in the 2021 election, when he, in fact, misled the people on where the money was coming from?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): You know, leader, every time we raise something, you question our integrity instead of questioning the integrity of the people who broke laws and who are lying.

Before the House committee on Friday, the former president of the Trudeau Foundation said its board members attacked her for her wanting to look into the truth behind Beijing’s $200,000 gift. You say Mr. Rosenberg is a respected person. He misled. He misled when he said something that was not true.

Government leader, it’s ridiculous for you to keep saying the Prime Minister has no links to the foundation.

On April 11, 2016, a meeting took place, leader, between deputy ministers from five departments and the Trudeau Foundation. This meeting was held, Mr. Leader, down the street, on the fourth floor of the Prime Minister’s Office building. It took place six months after Justin Trudeau became the Prime Minister and three years after he claimed he no longer was involved in the foundation.

There are dozens of boardrooms throughout Ottawa where that meeting could have taken place, but it wasn’t held in any of them. The reason why it was held at the Prime Minister’s Office, leader, is obvious to everybody, even to you, leader. How can you defend that? I have some very simple questions, leader, and please answer them. Don’t tell me how respectable everybody is.

Leader, it shouldn’t take you very long to find these answers. Was this the only meeting with the Trudeau Foundation and the Prime Minister’s Office, or have there been others? If not, how many were there? When? And why did they take place in the Prime Minister’s Office?