EDITORIAL: Let Telford testify, Prime Minister

How can Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accuse the Conservatives of playing partisan politics about foreign interference in the last two federal elections, while Liberal MPs are working to prevent his chief of staff, Katie Telford, from testifying about what she knows?

They are filibustering at a parliamentary committee looking into the issue of election interference, which basically means hogging the floor by talking endlessly about irrelevant issues in order to prevent a vote on requiring Telford to appear before it.

The opposition parties want to question Telford — Trudeau’s most powerful aide — on whether the Prime Minister’s Office was briefed about allegations of interference in Canada’s elections.

It’s not a complicated question and if her answer is a convincing “no,” then her appearance before the committee to testify shouldn’t take long.

If her answer is “yes,” that will lead to other questions about what, exactly, the Prime Minister’s Office knew about allegations of interference by China in the last two federal elections, when did it know about it and what did it do about it?

The Liberals are arguing that when Stephen Harper‘s Conservative government was in power, it argued against forcing political staff to appear before committees to answer questions that should be addressed to cabinet ministers.

But Telford has already appeared twice before parliamentary committees on the issues of sexual misconduct in the military in 2021 and the We Charity affair in 2020.

Neither of her appearances produced any earth-shattering testimony, which is hardly surprising given that Telford isn’t some junior political aide who’s going to blurt something out because she’s intimidated by opposition questions.

She’s an experienced political operator who will have plenty of time to craft her responses to the questions she knows opposition MPs will ask of her.

Plus, she’ll have Liberal MPs on the committee running interference for her if and when she testifies.

Trudeau, who initially downplayed reports of foreign interference in our elections by the Globe and Mail and Global News — based on information provided anonymously by security officials — now claims he’s all about protecting Canadians from foreign interference.

If so, he should drop his opposition to Telford testifying before the House of Commons votes on a Conservative motion requiring her to do so this week.