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Pressure mounts on Trudeau to call inquiry into foreign political meddling
Justin Trudeau is under increasing cross-partisan pressure to call an independent inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian politics.The push for some form of public inquiry isn’t limited to the Liberals’ political opponents, but former senior national security officials and a former close confidant of the prime minister. Read more: Canada needs an inquiry into Chinese election interference: ex-spymaster Read next: Part of the Sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists “Some form of non-partisan deep look has to happen here,” Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s former principal secretary, told Global News in an interview Sunday.Butts, now the vice chairman of the Eurasia Group, said there are a number of ways the government could commission a non-partisan investigation, including a public inquiry, Royal commission or a commission of inquiry.“We have many tools at our disposal,” Butts said, adding that while recent reports have focused on Chinese political interference, the issue is broader.“It’s not going to get at the heart of the problem if we just pick one election cycle and one country.”Global News reported Saturday that Dick Fadden, the former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and a longtime senior national security official, said he could see no “compelling reason” not to hold a public inquiry into foreign interference.