TORONTO – The curtain is raised on foreign interference: today the job of the public inquiry resumed, entering its second phase of hearings. More than sixty witnesses are expected to be heard over the next five weeks, including MPs, ministers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau too. 

The investigation, led by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, was launched, as is known, following accusations made against China of “interfering” in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections.

In her initial report, made public in May, Hogue found that while it was possible that foreign interference occurred in a small number of elections, it had not affected the overall election results.

Now, in the second phase, the investigation will focus on how well the government is equipped to fight foreign (not just Chinese) interference in elections and how this capacity has evolved over time.

So far, as CBC Senior Reporter Elizabeth Thompson writes in an extensive article, more than 140 individuals and groups have responded to the call for proposals, including confidential proposals. In August and September, Hogue traveled around the country to meet in secret locations with members of various diaspora communities, who shared their experiences and outlined measures they believe will best protect them.

Over the course of 22 meetings, Hogue met with 105 people from diverse diaspora communities: Chinese, Uyghur, Hong Kong, Tibetan, Sikh, Indian, Russian, Falun Gong practitioners, Ukrainian, Tamil, Eritrean, Tigrayan and Iranian.

Now a new phase of listening opens for her: the current phase of the public hearings of the inquiry will last until 16 October, followed by five days of political consultations which will begin on 21 October.

But there is already another report to “deal with”: it’s the one presented, in June, by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP): in its 84-page report , the cross-party committee of MPs and senators said some MPs helped trigger foreign governments such as China and India to interfere in Canadian politics. The Hogue-led commission intends to call these testimonies in upcoming public hearings, but those lawmakers will not be named, as the allegations in the NSICOP report are based on classified information that cannot be disclosed to lawmakers accused of aiding foreign governments.

In the pic above, Justice Marie-Josée Hogue who heads the commission of inquiry into foreign interference (photo from Twitter X – Foreign Interference Commission @PIFIEPIE)