Mallika Dureja
A report in Canadian media on Friday said that China may have tried to sway the results of the 2021 Canadian elections in favour of the Liberal Party, which is currently in power.
The police arrested a 34-year-old man after they found guns and illegal drugs on him. Varinder Saini, who lives in Manimajra, has been found to be the person who did this.
The police found and took back an air gun, seven air cylinders, a packet of pellets, a plastic bag with 105 bottles of cough syrup with 100 millilitres of chlorpheniramine maleate and codeine phosphate in each bottle, alprazolam tablet strips, a laptop, and an iPhone.
A person was taken into custody when a squad doing regular patrols in the area heard that a man was driving a Honda Amaze while carrying illegal ammunition. The suspect was then taken to a naka near the Mauli Jagran Chowk police station and held there. The accused were charged with breaking both the Arms Act and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act because they were found with illegal pills, syrup, and a gun. The accused could not show a licence or permission to do it. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, is Canada’s spy agency. The report was based on documents from CSIS.
It also said, “Intelligence reports show that Beijing wanted the Conservatives to lose.” China used misinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organisations in Vancouver and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), where there are many mainland Chinese immigrants, to oppose the Conservatives and support the Trudeau Liberals.
An unnamed Chinese consulate official was quoted in a CSIS report as saying, “The PRC can only support the Liberal Party of Canada.” But Beijing also wanted to keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in the minority because it “likes it when the parties in Parliament fight with each other.” If there is a majority, the party in power can easily make policies that don’t help the PRC.
According to the report, the operation was aimed at Conservative Party incumbents Kenny Chiu and Alice Wong in British Columbia and Indo-Canadian Bob Saroya in Ontario. Each of them lost the Federal elections in September 2021, which put the Liberals back in charge with another minority government. They got 160 seats, while the Conservatives only got 119.
Jenny Kwan of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in British Columbia was also targeted, but she was re-elected. She told CBC News, “They (the Government) can’t try to hide this information just because it’s possible that the Liberal will benefit from these activities.”
Also read:Manimajra man held with drugs, air gun
Trudeau said on Monday that he has repeatedly said that China is trying to mess with Canadian democracy, including its elections. But he has always said that this kind of interference didn’t change the results of the Federal elections. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, did not agree. He told reporters on Friday, “Justin Trudeau knew about this interference, and he covered it up because he benefited from it.” Poilievre added, “He doesn’t mind if a foreign, authoritarian government meddles in our elections as long as it helps him.”
