Trudeau Orders Chief Of Staff To Testify On Chinese Influence In Scandal - Statement

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2023) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bowed to growing pressure and agreed on Tuesday to order his office's Chief of Staff Katie Telford to testify before an investigative committee involving foreign interference in Canada's Federal elections.

"Ms. Telford has agreed to appear at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee as part of their study," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Telford is scheduled to testify before the committee by the middle of next month for what is expected to be a two hour session.

Trudeau has claimed to be ignorant of official reports that 11 members of his ruling Liberal Party had accepted foreign money, primarily from Chinese sources, for their election campaigns.

Earlier on Tuesday, opposition deputies from the leftwing New Democratic Party, the rightwing Conservative Party and the Parti Quebecois pressed the government in the House of Commons on what information had been kept from him, who decided not to tell him, or whether he knew all along.

To defuse the scandal, Trudeau appointed David Johnston as a new special rapporteur to probe the election interference allegations while his ministers insist there is no evidence that there was any foreign influence in any of his three general election victories.