Release the names: Trudeau critic on MPs accused of foreign interference

In a strongly worded statement, opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of "lying to distract from a Liberal caucus revolt against his leadership".

In Short

• Pierre Poilievre accuses Trudeau of lying, demands evidence be made public
• He says PM allowed China to interfere for election ein
• Conservative leader starts petition for Trudeau to release MP names.

Canada's opposition Conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre, demanded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to release all the names of Conservative MPs the latter accused of being involved in foreign interference. Poilievre also alleged that Trudeau knowingly allowed China to interfere to help him win two consecutive general elections.

In a strongly worded statement, the Conservative leader accused Trudeau of "lying to distract from a Liberal caucus revolt against his leadership".

On Wednesday, while testifying before the country's Foreign Interference Commission, Trudeau claimed that he had "names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and or candidates in the Conservative Party who are engaged, or are at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around foreign interference".

Without providing additional details, he also admitted a few seconds later that the intelligence about Conservative activities could be "shoddy or incomplete or just allegations from a single source".

The Prime Minister's accusation, however, did not go down well with Poilievre.

In his statement, posted on social media just hours after Trudeau's remarks, the Leader of the Opposition said that if the Prime Minister had evidence, he should share it with the public.

"Now that he had blurted it out, at a commission of inquiry, he should release the facts. But he won't, because he is making it up," Poilievre said, adding that Trudeau and his government were repeatedly warned about foreign interference, including from within the ruling Liberal Party, but they failed to act against it.

Besides the statement, the Conservative leader also started a petition to demand Trudeau release names of the MPs he had accused.

The development comes amid the ongoing India-Canada diplomatic row, which saw diplomats being kicked out in tit-for-tat moves, the latest in a year-long dispute that has plunged bilateral relations to a new low.

Trudeau has accused India of attacking Canada and "undermining the integrity of our democracy" in connection to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia last year.