O’Toole says he considered expelling a Conservative senator over foreign influence concerns

Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said Wednesday he contemplated expelling a Conservative senator from his party’s caucus over concerns that the senator was involved in foreign influence.

Testifying in Ottawa before the inquiry into foreign interference, O’Toole said one of his MPs was told by a local mayor that a Conservative senator was actively working on behalf of a Chinese government-owned company.

“There was a member of our upper chamber caucus that an MP brought to me that he had been directly or indirectly promoting or lobbying an interest of a Chinese state-owned enterprise in a riding in Ontario,” O’Toole told the inquiry.

“There had been previous stories about sponsored travel and other things that led me to have some serious concerns considering some of the subjects that we were discussing within caucus. But it was that issue in a town in Ontario, potentially advocating for an economic interest, that really forced me to make a decision about some concerns about that member.”

O’Toole said the senator took “a pretty extensive trip” to China, which had been the subject of media reports.

O’Toole said he felt it was “completely inappropriate for a member of the Senate to be advocating for a commercial interest related to a foreign entity in a riding in Canada.”

“Given that we were having very serious discussions at the time with respect to the relationship with China, the situation with the two Michaels, the consideration of the plight of the Uyghur peoples, Hong Kong, I was very concerned about this member,” he added.

O’Toole said he could have used help from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or other government intelligence experts but didn’t have access to them.

O’Toole was warned about claims of racism

“I was exploring removing this member from caucus but the challenge I had was I had no intelligence services support,” he said. “I had allegations that I could not verify. I had no warnings from intelligence agencies that they were aware of it.

“And the concern that some of my caucus members expressed to me was that if I took a rash decision about removing the member, I could be accused of racism.”

Unable to consult government security or intelligence experts, O’Toole said he settled for having the Conservative leader in the Senate give the senator in question a “stern talking-to.”

O’Toole did not name the senator who was the focus of his concerns.

Conservative sources who spoke to CBC News said O’Toole was referring in his testimony to former Conservative senator Victor Oh, who was appointed by former prime minister Stephen Harper and retired in June.

Reached by CBC News, Oh said no one from the Conservatives ever spoke to him about any concerns regarding China or “what I’m doing on promoting China.” He said he thought O’Toole was “confused.”

“I never promote any state-owned company in Ontario,” he said. “No way. And even if I do so, those are for economy reasons for helping out the country.”

O’Toole’s surprise testimony Wednesday came as the foreign interference inquiry, headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, continued its second phase of hearings.

The inquiry was set up in response to media reports which accused China of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

In her initial report, made public in May, Hogue found that while it was possible that foreign interference occurred in a small number of ridings, she concluded it did not affect the overall election results.

In its second phase, the inquiry will focus on how equipped the government is to combat foreign interference in elections and how that capacity has evolved over time.

More later …