'An ongoing challenge': Trudeau worried about interference by Chinese government

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he shares Canadians’ concerns when it comes to possible interference by the Chinese government.

The prime minister’s comments were made on Friday after Nanos released a poll that found more than 90 per cent of Canadians are concerned about Chinese interference with Canadian society.

“I very much share the concerns of Canadians around interference from the Chinese governments or other foreign governments,” he said during a visit to Winnipeg.

Trudeau said he had these concerns back when he was elected in 2015. He said he was seeing increased election interference around the world and knew that Canada had to create response mechanisms.

“Because Canada had very few, if any, mechanisms to counter interference in our democracy when we took office,” he said.

“That’s why we created so many different mechanisms designed to do it.”

Trudeau added that Canada has taken steps against foreign interference, noting that at the G7 Summit in Quebec in 2018, Canada led the creation of a rapid response mechanism on foreign interference in democracies.

“Not only do I share the preoccupations of Canadians, we have taken action, significant actions, over the past eight years to increase our ability to do that,” he said.

“But it is an ongoing challenge, not just in politics, [but] in business, in academia and research. That is why we continue to strengthen our capacity to respond.”

The prime minister added that Canadians need to know that our institutions “hold” and will continue to hold into the future.