Cross-partisan calls are growing for the Liberal government to call a public inquiry to investigate allegations of election interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections by the Chinese government, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having already ruled it out.

“Some form of non-partisan deep look has to happen here,” said Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s former principal secretary and also longtime friend, during an interview with Global News on Feb. 26.

Butts, who resigned from his position as principal secretary amid allegations that Trudeau’s office interfered to prevent a criminal prosecution of SNC−Lavalin, is now vice chairman of the Eurasia Group, a political consultancy company.

He said the federal government could commission a non-partisan investigation into the election interference reports, such as a public inquiry, a Royal commission, or a commission of inquiry.

“Foreign interference is either a real threat that deserves a robust policy response or it’s not. I’m firmly in the former camp,” Butts wrote on Twitter on Feb. 26. “The times and tools have changed and [Canada] needs a better defence against them.”

“Our public institutions work. We should use them to solve difficult problems.”

A Feb. 24 Global News report cited unnamed sources who alleged the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was warned by intelligence officials prior to the 2021 election that Liberal MP Han Dong was part of a Chinese foreign interference network.

The sources said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) believed Dong has been a “witting affiliate” in China’s election interference networks and added that Trudeau’s team was advised by the agency to rescind Dong’s candidacy in the 2021 race.

Dong won the Toronto-area riding of Don Valley North in both the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Former CSIS head Richard Fadden is also calling for a public inquiry into the election interference allegations, as well as former senior official at the Communications Security Establishment Artur Wilczynski.

“I think the first thing we need to do is to talk about this seriously, and given the general environment Canada, I don’t think it’s going to work unless we have a public inquiry,” Fadden told Global News on Feb. 26.

Wilczynski wrote on Twitter that “confidence in Canada’s democratic processes” must be restored.

“We need an independent review of how we confront foreign interference. I agree with Dick Fadden that an independent inquiry may be the only way to remove partisanship from the review,” he wrote on Feb. 26.

Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former chief electoral commissioner for Canada from 1990 to 2017, lent his voice to the call for a public inquiry as well.

“We need to find out what has transpired. I favour an independent inquiry because this is what will satisfy Canadians. It is not a minor issue,” he told The Globe and Mail on Feb. 23.

However, when asked by reporters in Toronto on Feb. 24 about the possibility of the federal government calling a public inquiry, Trudeau said Canada’s “electoral and democratic processes have not been compromised.”

“We have continually given new resources and new tools including a panel and a task force that we set up way back in 2019,” he said, in reference to the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol created to monitor and report threats of election interference.

The panel has not yet released its post-election assessment report for the 2021 election, but the Privy Council Office said in a recent statement that a public version of it will soon be available, without giving any specific timeline.

Members of opposition parties have also called for a public inquiry into the interference allegations.

“When Canadians learn about possible foreign interference through leaked documents, confidence in our democracy is put at risk,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement, according to Global News.

“The way to stop alleged secret Chinese interference is to refuse to keep their secrets for them. A fully independent and non-partisan public inquiry is the way to shine a light into the shadows.”

Conservative MP Erin O’Toole also wrote on Twitter earlier this month that a “national inquiry on election integrity may be in order.”

The Canadian Press, Omid Ghoreishi, and Marnie Cathcart contributed to this report.