LILLEY: Liberals claiming foreign interference on Ruby Dhalla laughable

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Wait, the Trudeau Liberals are suddenly concerned about foreign interference?

That’s what they want you to think after they kicked Ruby Dhalla out of their leadership race, but it’s not believable.

As the Liberal Party broke the news, first leaking it to CBC before telling the public or the candidate, they made sure to include concerns about Dhalla and foreign interference.

“A source, speaking on the condition they not be named, said Dhalla was also accused of failing to disclose the involvement of a non-Canadian citizen in her campaign, which the party alleges would amount to foreign interference if it happened during an election period,” CBC reported late Friday afternoon.

That’s convenient, use a secret source to comment on a secret process to remove Dhalla from the race. It’s clear the party brass, all loyal to Justin Trudeau and almost all exclusively working for, or supporting, Mark Carney didn’t want Dhalla in the race.

There are also claims by the party, which Dhalla disputes, that there were fundraising irregularities. Either way, Dhalla is out, most likely for not being loyal enough to Carney, whom she has been attacking, and possibly for being a threat to his coronation.

In fact, Liberal strategist Greg MacEachran said as much while he was discussing Dhalla’s ouster on CBC – her social media accounts were mean to Trudeau and Carney.

This claim, though, that the Liberals were concerned about foreign interference is simply ridiculous.

This is the party that was informed by CSIS in September 2019 that there were concerns about one of their candidates, in particular foreign interference by China in his nomination meeting. CSIS informed Trudeau’s then campaign manager Jeremy Broadhurst, who then informed Trudeau who promptly did nothing with the information.

That candidate, Han Dong, sat in the Liberal caucus until March 2023 when media reports linked him to moves by the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to bring in Chinese students to vote for Dong.

For his part, Dong denies having anything to do with foreign interference. But it is clear that while he wasn’t interested in help from China, China was interested in his race.

They were interested in others as well.

Trudeau knew all of this and did nothing to prevent China from making a mockery of our democracy for years. That is until stories were leaked to the media by frustrated national security officials tired of seeing the government do nothing.

Trudeau denied there were problems until he was shamed into calling a public inquiry, which he ensured kept the most vital information secret. We still don’t know the names of 11 candidates in the Toronto area who were apparently part of a plot by China to interfere and if it is up to the Liberals, we never will.

That didn’t stop Trudeau from taking the stand at the inquiry to try and politicize the issue of foreign interference.

“I have the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged, or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around, foreign interference,” Trudeau told the inquiry.

He never released those names and the Conservative Party, including officials with top secret security clearance, say they were never briefed on such matters.

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It didn’t matter, Trudeau had the spotlight and used foreign interference – something he denied was an issue to attack his political opponent. For the Trudeau Liberals, it’s all about partisan politics, never the good of the country. When the inquiry report came out saying there were no pressing issues in Canada, Trudeau dropped the issue of the Conservatives being a danger.

Now, the Trudeau Liberals – or the Trudeau-Carney Liberals – need to bring back foreign interference again to ensure an orderly coronation for Mark Carney, Justin Trudeau’s chosen successor.

The Liberals seem to live by the idea that you should never let facts get in the way of a good story. Also, make sure you always put the Liberal Party above everything else, including the truth or the national interest.

Ruby Dhalla is the latest victim of this way of thinking – and she won’t be the last.

blilley@postmedia.com