Mark Carney isn’t even prime minister yet, and he is already debasing the highest office in the land by giving oxygen to conspiracy theories. During his speech after winning the Liberal leadership on Sunday, he all but accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of being a national security threat, nodding to baseless allegations that have fermented online for months.
Carney must have felt quite clever as he uttered: “And now — and now — in the face of President Trump’s threats, Pierre Poilievre still — still — refuses to get his security clearance.”
The soon-to-be sworn in prime minister didn’t offer any context or explanation or reasons why this matters. It is a line that the Liberals are increasingly using to imply that Poilievre somehow has something to hide.
It is true that Poilievre has declined to receive a security briefing, which would require passing a clearance, but it has nothing to do with Donald Trump, as Carney seems to suggest. It is in relation to Chinese interference in Canadian elections, a reality that current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent months dismissing as a non-problem, despite the fact there was evidence such interference was done to benefit the Liberal party.
When the scope of Chinese meddling in elections became widely reported in late 2022 and early 2023, Poilievre said he would decline security briefings that would detail top secret intelligence reports.
But the reasoning was hardly nefarious. It was because receiving such briefings would have circumscribed what Poilievre could say about Chinese interference, a point on which everyone agrees. As the leader of the Opposition, Poilievre believed, reasonably I would say, that any briefing offered would be used as a way for the government to get him to stop criticizing it over its lax attitude to election security.
It is an argument that has been repeatedly endorsed by former NDP and Official Opposition leader Tom Mulcair. “I think Poilievre was wise not to tie his hands,” he said last year. “I would never want to be told I can’t ask all the questions I want of the government.” Mulcair added that the leaders of the NDP and and Bloc Québécois don’t “have as important of a role.”
When in March 2023, Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford testified to a Parliamentary committee on foreign interference, she was criticized by Conservatives for refusing to answer questions more fully. Her response was that, of all people, Poilievre should understand why she couldn’t speak as completely as she might have otherwise, as it would violate the rules under which she was given a security clearance.
Again, everyone agrees that receiving a security briefing on foreign election interference would limit, if not prevent, the leader of the Official Opposition from criticizing the government on the matter. Suggesting that Poilievre, by declining a briefing means he is worried he cannot pass the necessary security clearance is entirely dishonest, and lacking in evidence.
At the time when this issue first emerged, in spring 2023, Poilievre hadn’t even been offered a briefing, so it was an entirely moot point. That didn’t, however, stop then-Liberal House Leader Mark Holland from attacking Poilievre on the matter, something which he later apologized for.
Also, during this time, the most unhinged elements of Liberal party supporters were trading in wilder and more extreme allegations, largely on Twitter. The suggestion quickly became that Poilievre had something to hide, and that he was somehow involved in a vast global conspiracy, theories that grew increasingly dark.
This is the constituency that Carney and other Liberals are nodding to. On the weekend, Trudeau released a video attacking the Conservative leader, titled “Why Won’t Pierre Poilievre Get His Security Clearance?” In it, a grave sounding Trudeau talks about election interference, as if he takes it very seriously.
“Our intelligence agencies have confirmed this,” he says. “But for some reason Poilievre refuses to listen to them.”
Observing Liberals speak as if they are genuinely concerned about Chinese election interference is amusing. When the allegations first came to light, Liberals dismissed them as racially motivated, and accused Conservatives of using “Trump-type tactics” for simply asking questions. MP Greg Fergus, who is now speaker of the House, suggested that media outlets reporting on the issue were the ones truly committing foreign interference.
The argument that Poilievre isn’t receiving security clearance because he has something to hide was further debunked in January when it was revealed that CSIS had offered the Conservative leader a briefing without having to go through a clearance. He again refused because after receiving the briefing Poilievre would still “be legally prevented from speaking with anyone other than legal counsel about the briefing,” a Conservative spokesman told CBC.
Even so, the twisting of the truth continues as Liberals keep trying to leave the impression that Poilievre is some sort of existential threat to the country, without providing any evidence whatsoever.
As unhinged and as conspiracy theory inflected it is to make these allegations against Poilievre, there is a certain logic to it for the Liberals. It nods to the party’s fiercest, and most ridiculous, supporters online, while possibly sewing doubt among centrist voters. Political usefulness aside, it is highly disreputable, especially coming from the man who will in short order become prime minister.
National Post