No foreign interference in Quebec, says minister facing calls for inquiry

Quebec's Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, takes part in Question Period at the National Assembly, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Jacques Boissinot

The City of Brossard supports the Parti Québécois (PQ) request for an inquiry into foreign interference, in the wake of the federal report tabled on the subject on Monday.

In a letter addressed to Public Security Minister François Bonnardel, Brossard Mayor Doreen Assaad points out that a Brossard city councillor is a director of two organizations under investigation by the RCMP for operating alleged Chinese police stations on Canadian soil.

The city's "significant concerns" about "foreign influence in the last municipal elections ... were not taken into account," she says.

The Municipal Commission refused to intervene, and PQ MNA Pascal Paradis deplored the fact that the city was "left to its own devices on this crucial issue for local democracy."

During Wednesday's question period, he asked Minister Bonnardel to launch an inquiry.

"The question is what Quebec's strategy is to preserve its democratic institutions," Paradis pleaded. "There are municipal elections coming up, there are Quebec elections coming up, we have to be ready."

Bonnardel pointed out that his department's state security branch is in daily contact with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Interpol and the main intelligence agencies.

"We have no reason to believe that there is any interference or anything else going on in Quebec," he insisted.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 5, 2024.