The Liberal Party will elect its new leader in the coming months with rules that were, according to publicly released intelligence, exploited by Beijing in the past to support a favoured candidate in a riding nomination contest.
The leadership race should kick-off in the coming days, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 he intends to step down once the Liberal Party elects a new leader.
Details about the race are expected to be etched out this week by the party’s national board of directors, which has to set a date for the vote and set up committees to decide on issues such as contestants’ campaign spending limits.
The rules on who can become a registered Liberal and vote in the contest are not expected to change. As of now, the party bylaws stipulate that anyone who “ordinarily” lives in Canada and is at least 14 years old can register with the party at no fee.
The Conservatives only allow permanent residents and citizens to join, while NDP membership is open to “every resident” of Canada. Both parties charge a membership fee.
Registered Liberals can vote in the leadership race with different options, including providing a piece of government ID with an address. A Liberal can also vote without a piece of ID showing an address by swearing an oath and having a fellow registered Liberal vouch for his or her address.
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The absence of a residency requirement means foreign students and temporary workers can help choose who is the next party leader. Individuals who have overstayed their visas can theoretically also be registered Liberals and vote.
“Registration in the Liberal Party of Canada is open without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or physical disability,” the party bylaws say.
For voting in leadership races, the Liberal Party constitution says individuals need to have been registered with the party 41 days before the voting day.
‘Vulnerability’
This issue of allowing foreign nationals to vote in Canadian democratic processes has been heavily scrutinized in recent months by the Foreign Interference Commission, particularly the 2019 Liberal nomination contest in the Don Valley North (DVN) riding of Toronto.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue wrote in her interim report from May 2023 about Canada having “intelligence holdings indicating irregularities in the DVN nomination contest that may have included activities undertaken by individuals close to PRC [People’s Republic of China] officials.”
A summary of intelligence entered as evidence at the inquiry says buses were used to bring international students to vote for then-Liberal candidate Han Dong, and that some were provided falsified documents to be able to vote. “The documents were provided by individuals associated with a known proxy agent” of the PRC, says the summary.
Dong, who resigned from the Liberal caucus to sit as an Independent in March 2023 amid interference allegations, has denied knowing PRC officials were supporting him.
Hogue wrote in her interim report the DVN “incident makes clear the extent to which nomination contests can be gateways for foreign states who wish to interfere in our democratic process.”
The commission is expected to release its final report by the end of January, which is likely to contain recommendations about strengthening party races.
Dominic LeBlanc, while serving as public safety minister when Hogue released her interim report, had acknowledged nomination contests pose a “vulnerability.”
He however expressed “full confidence in the Liberal Party and the rules in place regarding nomination contests.”
Government security bodies have also flagged nomination races as a foreign interference vulnerability.
The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force wrote in a February 2024 threat assessment that a key methodology used by foreign states to meddle is to exploit “loopholes in political party nomination processes.”
Liberal Party national director Azam Ishmael testified at the interference commission in September and said he doesn’t see the lack of a citizenship or permanent residency requirement to vote in nomination races as a foreign interference vulnerability.
“If you were to extract that rule to its extreme, you would need people to show up with either their birth certificate or their passport [for] voting in a nomination meeting, so frankly, it’s not practical,” he said.
Ishmael also testified before the inquiry in April 2023 and was asked whether an individual who has no intention to remain in Canada can still become a member. Ishmael said the party doesn’t make that assumption and rather aims for inclusivity. “We make the assumption that we want to have an inclusive process that welcomes new people into the fold,” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Liberal Party for comment but didn’t hear back.
