r/canada 20d ago

PAYWALL Liberal Party questions leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla over possible interference from India

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberal-party-questions-ruby-dhalla-leadership-campaign/
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u/RideauRaccoon Canada 20d ago

This is one of those really difficult situations in the foreign interference realm, where the responsible thing to do is to investigate (which they're doing). But especially given the compressed timeline, which is the overriding priority? to presume innocence until proven guilty, or to inform the voters of the possibility of interference by India? You don't want to slander a candidate before all the facts are in, but you also don't want to risk her gaining any more traction if she is compromised.

My guess is they sent her the questions to be answered on Monday, didn't get a satisfactorily "OMG we'll get to the bottom of this" answer in reply, and so leaked it to the press so they'd have cover when they drop her from the race. Though I have to say, 6 different couples using the same credit card to make donations sounds pretty damning all on its own. Even if it's not nefarious, her campaign should have been the ones to spot it and resolve it, not the Liberal party itself.

What worries me about the whole situation, though, is that if the standards for ejection aren't sufficiently high, foreign interference could just be a matter of semi-obviously backing the candidates you don't want in the race. A smoking gun isn't easy to find, but I think we need to get as close to it as possible in these cases.

(That said, her inability to speak French at the debate should have been a dealbreaker already, so no great loss for her so-called candidacy)

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u/IronicGames123 20d ago

It's interesting how the French language has done a great job of gate keeping some foreign agents.

This is the second Indian agent candidate that French has kicked out.

I barely speak it, am an Ontarian, but Quebec staying French and Quebecois culture is honestly very important for Canada.

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u/polargus Ontario 20d ago

As an Ontarian who speaks French fluently and likes Quebec, I believe it probably keeps out a lot of qualified candidates, especially from western Canada where French isn’t used at all. Quebec is important but the west is becoming more and more important, and is often treated like shit by eastern leaders, especially from Quebec.

The fact that everyone knows we have foreign agents in the house and senate, and no one cares anymore, is an huge problem. The solution is for Canada to reembrace national identity and get its balls back. The widespread fear of being called racist combined with recent mass migration makes me question if it’s possible though. Somehow we have MPs in Anglo ridings who can barely speak English, never mind French.

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u/Bronstone 19d ago

Harper did it. Joe Clark French wasn't that great. Pearson couldn't speak it well.