Trudeau can thank Hogue that Canadians may never be the wiser about foreign election interference. Pictured: Justice Marie-Josée Hogue. Photo Credit: Court of Appeal of Quebec.
This week Justice Marie-Josée Hogue released the final report of Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission. The report was the culmination of a year-long inquiry into the undue influence of China, Russia, India and other foreign actors on the Canadian government and citizens and the possible foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. As Canadians are discovering, the Hogue Report will be remembered more for what it did not contain than any of the facts and insights shared by the commission’s work.
In many ways the Hogue commission and its final report was a repeat performance of previous inquiries into the serious matter of foreign interference in Canada’s government and elections. Recall Prime Minister Justin Trudeau handpicked the former Trudeau Foundation CEO Morris Rosenberg to issue a report on the matter – one that exonerated Trudeau and the Liberals from any foul play with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Then Trudeau was pressured into calling a public inquiry, and he tapped long-time Trudeau family friend David Johnston. The now wholly discredited and dismissed Johnston Report exonerated Trudeau and the Liberals from any wrong doing. After the public outed the shameful biases of Johnston, Trudeau selected Quebec Justice Hogue to undertake another public inquiry.
Over 16 months, the commission held 35 days of public hearings, weeks of in-camera hearings, and heard from 150 witnesses. Hogue delivered an interim report last May which focused on foreign activities in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. With this final report published, Madame Justice completes her work and accomplishes her mission; Hogue has successfully defended Justin Trudeau — again.
Again? Hogue’s career footnote that is seldom recounted is the fact that she was a colleague of Pierre Elliott Trudeau at the Heenan Blaikie law firm. More to the point, Hogue was member of the legal team who brokered the deal for Justin relating to his quick exit from West Point Grey Academy, a deal that included an expensive non-disclosure agreement. Details of the incident(s) that landed drama teacher Trudeau in hot water have leaked out over the years, but all mention of his time and departure from West Point Grey has been labelled “conspiracy theory” and avoided by the government-sponsored legacy media. The Hogue-Trudeau backstory is purposefully overlooked.
So, true to her history with the Trudeau family, Hogue aptly defended and delivered with the production of this week’s commission final report.
The report states that China is the country of gravest concern for Canadians, the main perpetrator of foreign interference. Hogue cited six instances of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. She concluded that although the overall election results were not affected, foreign meddling in the election process is a serious issue. Hogue writes, “Regardless of whether actual electoral results are affected, the problem of foreign interference is pervasive, insidious, and harmful to Canada’s democratic institutions.”
Hogue pointed out gaps in how intelligence on potential foreign wrongdoing was being handled. She was critical of the fact that foreign interference intelligence was not appropriately shared with targeted parliamentarians in a timely manner. She also suggested more public education and communication needs to occur to protect diaspora communities from foreign pressure tactics. In the report, Hogue provided 51 recommendations that were expansive in scope, from developing a whole-of-government foreign interference strategy to developing a “Duty to Warn” policy for senior government officials.
The final report also underlines the threats to Canadians of misinformation and disinformation campaigns conducted by foreign governments. It states that these foreign campaigns played out in traditional and, particularly, in social media are the “single biggest risk” – an “existential threat” – to Canada’s democracy.
But for all the issues that the final report covered, it is likely to be regarded as incomplete having not provided the details of the potential treasonous activities of the eleven previously identified parliamentarians. On this matter, Hogue downplayed the activities and she sidestepped mention of names, contradicting earlier claims that the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) fingered those parliamentarians who were “semi-witting or witting” agents colluding with foreign governments.
Hogue was emphatic this week that there are no “traitors” in Parliament. In the government documentation, she stated she had not seen “any evidence of traitors in Parliament plotting with foreign states to act against Canada.” She conceded in her media conference that some parliamentarians showed poor judgment, “Although a few cases involving things like attempts to curry favour with parliamentarians have come to light, the phenomenon remains marginal and largely ineffective,” but she was clear, “While the states’ attempts are troubling and there is some concerning conduct by parliamentarians, there is no cause for widespread alarm.”
Hogue doubled down on this thought in Tuesday’s media exchange, “I have no evidence to suggest that anyone acted in bad faith.”
Hogue argued that the focus is not about 11 bad actors, but rather the whole of the system and how Canada deals with foreign bad actors, “The shortcomings observed appear to have been systemic ones, the consequences of which were exacerbated by various external factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which required a significant reorganization of work.”
There is something disconcerting about Hogue’s performance on Tuesday. Her insistence that there were no traitors in Parliament contradicts the evidence compiled by MPs as part of work completed by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. More remarkable, it contradicts testimony and public statements made by Trudeau, then-public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh – all claiming that they were concerned about the MPs who were named purporting to have engaged in treasonous acts. In his commission testimony, under oath with Hogue listening intently, Trudeau stated there were Conservative MPs that he saw on a list. So, Canadians are left to wonder who is telling the truth and who is being mischievous?
As weighty as the Hogue Report seems, when carefully read it comes up lacking. The Globe and Mail lead editorial, “The Hogue report keeps Canadians where they were — in the dark,” assesses that the report “leaves the country in the same place it was in when her inquiry began its work at the end of 2023; that is, with no answers about who did what.”
In his National Post editorial column, Jamie Sarkonak was perhaps the most cynical in his criticisms of the commission’s work. He lambasted Hogue for concluding that acts of foreign interference were a result of a systemic problem, “Overall, the report amounts to another Laurentian elite lecturing the rest of Canada about how a major system failure in government — caused by people who supervise and serve it — amounts to another precious Learning Moment For All of Us Canadians. Just like the blackface incident, just like the Kokanee groping allegation. Instead of, you know, an occasion for a few major high-profile firings, fines and perhaps criminal investigations.”
The critical assessments of the commission’s work and its findings are only beginning, but it is highly likely that the Hogue Report will soon be swept into a dustbin of government propaganda, much like the previous foreign interference reports produced by Rosenberg and Johnston. Seemingly, Hogue has managed to adeptly manage this file for Trudeau, obfuscating the facts and kicking the controversial issue a little further down the road.
Perhaps most important, as was accomplished so many years ago with the West Point Grey Academy non-disclosure agreement, Hogue has buried the pertinent evidence, sealing those confidential testimonies from witnesses with direct knowledge about the CCP interference for 99 years.
As a concluding thought, it is most troubling that Canadians are only getting glimpses of the controversies arising from the tight ties between the Trudeau Liberals and the CCP. Foreign interference in elections is just one issue. It is a Pandora’s box once the lid is raised: CCP police stations operating in Canada; the activities of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; denial of the genocidal human rights violations of the Uyghurs; delay in establishing a foreign agent registry; the lobbying activities of Chinese business organizations; and the approvals of Chinese purchases of natural resource companies. Then there is the Chinese money flowing into the Trudeau Foundation. What about the possible gain of function virus research that was shared between the Winnipeg Lab and Wuhan Lab? And what about those 11 possible treasonous parliamentarians who have been colluding with foreign governments?
On that last controversy, Trudeau can thank Hogue that Canadians may never be the wiser.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
