OTTAWA – Canada’s top intelligence officials were aware as of July 2021 that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) could interfere in specific ridings in the election to either support candidates viewed as “pro-PRC” or oppose those seen as “anti-PRC,” but that information was never explicitly mentioned to the party campaign directors at the time.

In fact, Walied Soliman, Conservative campaign co-chair in the 2021 election, as well as Liberal national campaign director Azam Ishmael and the NDP’s national director Anne McGrath confirmed during the hearings on the inquiry on foreign interference on Tuesday that they were never given that level of detail during their top-level security briefings.