Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office intervened in 2019 to keep Han Dong off a House of Commons committee probing Canada’s relations with China, according to testimony from Trudeau’s most senior staff.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed security-cleared Liberal officials during the 2019 election about “irregularities” related to Dong’s nomination as the party’s candidate in Don Valley North.
Those irregularities included CSIS intelligence suggesting Chinese diplomatic officials leaned on international students to support Dong’s nomination, as well as the busing of people to the nomination meeting coerced into supporting the now-independent MP.
Documents previously published by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s foreign interference inquiry suggest that CSIS was aware of those “irregularities,” first reported by Global News in 2023 and had briefed senior Liberal officials about the issue in 2019.
Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus on March 22, 2023, and now sits as an independent. He has denied any wrongdoing and is suing Global News’ parent company over its foreign interference coverage.
“I didn’t pay attention to busing international students because … I didn’t understand it as an irregularity,” Dong told the foreign interference inquiry earlier this year.
Dong’s campaign manager, Ted Lojko, testified that he didn’t know anything about the busload of students.
While Dong was allowed to remain sitting as a Liberal MP for years, the intelligence was of sufficient concern that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) nixed Dong’s candidacy to sit on the special committee on the Canada-People’s Republic of China relationship, according to Trudeau’s deputy chief of staff, Brian Clow.
“After the (2019) election, the Clerk briefed the Prime Minister, (Chief of Staff Katie) Telford, and (Jeremy) Broadhurst about the intelligence” related to Dong, documents released by the commission Tuesday read.
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“However, there was very little information available.… At that point the level of Mr. Dong’s engagement with the (People’s Republic of China) was unclear.… Mr. Clow…
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