Senator Plett: As I said, he’s the beneficiary. Why did the Trudeau Foundation return hundreds of thousands of dollars that they clearly thought the foundation should not have received? Now, we find out that the Prime Minister himself has received thousands of dollars in donations from very questionable sources in his own riding.

For the past three weeks, we’ve seen Liberal MPs filibuster at committee to block the Prime Minister’s chief of staff from saying what she knows about the Beijing interference. Then they say it’s political when the opposition asks questions.

Yesterday, the Trudeau government threatened that a motion before the other place to compel Ms. Telford to testify could well be a matter of confidence — obviously, to get Jagmeet Singh on side.

This morning, the Prime Minister’s Office said Ms. Telford will appear before committee but also seemed to warn that she wouldn’t have much to say.

This is a farce, leader. The Prime Minister doesn’t need the former governor general or any made-up special rapporteur to tell Canadians the truth about what he knew. He can tell Canadians the truth.

Instead, we’ve seen the Prime Minister completely unable or unwilling to answer straightforward questions, leader. If the Prime Minister had and has nothing to hide, he’d be able to answer questions, wouldn’t he? If he had nothing to hide, he wouldn’t keep bending over backwards to keep the truth from coming out. Don’t you agree, leader?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): My question is for the government leader around the foreign interference in our elections.

I’m going to do something that I don’t usually do, leader. I am going to quote a Liberal, someone who recently posed a very good question about the Prime Minister’s feeble response to reports about Beijing’s interference in our elections. These are the words of Warren Kinsella, a senior staffer in the Chrétien government, leader, from a recent column:

Namely, how can he decide who will investigate China’s malfeasance — and what their terms of reference are, and when they will report — when he, him, is the prime beneficiary of the interference?

The prime beneficiary. Warren Kinsella says that Justin Trudeau is the prime beneficiary.

Leader, you don’t need a Harvard law degree to know that the Prime Minister has a blatant conflict of interest here. The Communist regime in Beijing interfered in our democracy. There’s no question about that, and he benefited from it. Why should the Prime Minister have any say in how this is being investigated?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Leader, I’m going to turn away from Beijing now, and proceed to some other countries.

Last week, leader, in a joint press conference with President Biden and Australian Prime Minister Albanese, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, stated, “. . . the defence of our values depends, as it always has, on the quality of our relationships with others.”

When the AUKUS security partnership was first announced in September 2021, Prime Minister Trudeau dismissed it as just “a deal for nuclear submarines.” Instead, our allies see it as a way to counter Beijing’s ambitions into the Indo-Pacific.

Over the past 18 months, Prime Minister Trudeau has never said that he wants Canada to join this pact. What is worse is that we’ve seen no indication that three of our closest allies even want to invite us.

Why do you think that is, leader? Is Canada excluded because our allies don’t take your government seriously?

Senator Plett: The Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, or CSIS, documents on Beijing’s interference in our democracy were shared with many of Canada’s intelligence allies, including the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. Even without viewing these documents, our allies could see how the Trudeau government has failed to recognize the threats posed by this Communist regime: the admiration for Beijing’s basic dictatorship, the reluctance to ban Huawei from our 5G network, not showing up for a vote to recognize the Uighur genocide and claiming the two Michaels are out on bail. I could go on, leader, but I think I’ve made my point.

There are reports now that Japan is set to join this new alliance. Leader, has your government asked to join — yes or no? Or is the Trudeau government afraid of what the answer might be — yes or no?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Your Honour, I am not quite sure how to approach this.

We have a very difficult odour in this chamber, as we have had in the entire building most of the morning. As an old plumber, I used to work with this odour quite a bit; as a senator, I haven’t quite as often.

I’m not sure, Your Honour, what the proper thing to do is. It is really starting to affect some of us. Throughout the course of the day, I think it will affect a lot more of us. I know we are past Government Business. I’m certainly not, at this point, moving the adjournment of the Senate. I would, at least, ask you for your opinion and the opinion of other colleagues.