Opposition parties have been demanding a full public inquiry.
Trudeau declined to do that now, but said he would name an independent special rapporteur who would decide if a public inquiry is needed. Trudeau said he would abide by the recommendation.
“We will ask the independent special rapporteur, as one of the first tasks of their mandate, to provide the government with a recommendation as to what the appropriate next step would be — whether it be an inquiry, an investigation or a judicial review — and what the scope of that work may be,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said that “all political leaders agree that the election results in 2019, and in 2021, were not impacted by foreign interference. But even if it didn’t change the results of our elections, any interference attempt, by any foreign actor, is troubling and serious.”
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre earlier Monday criticized the idea of a Parliament committee being involved.
He said that would result only in officials presenting opposition lawmakers with “some information and then swearing them to secrecy so they could never speak about it again.” So effectively, that would be a trick to try and prevent anyone debating the subject.”
A panel of civil servants recently issued a report that concluded there were foreign attempts to interfere, but none affected the outcome of the election.
“We have long known, as an independent report confirmed again last week, that the Chinese government, and other regimes like Iran and Russia, have attempted to interfere not just in our democracy, but in our country in general, whether it’s our institutions, our businesses, our research facilities, or in the daily lives of our citizens,” Trudeau said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, meanwhile, said Monday it is investigating possible violations of the Security of Information Act concerning recent media reports about alleged foreign interference in the last two federal elections.