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Foreign Interference: Brampton Mayor to appear before probe body
“While I main my objection to the committee’s summons, I understand and will comply with my legal obligation to appear.”
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Brampton Mayor / X/ @@patrickbrownont
The Mayor of Brampton and a prominent candidate in the 2022 Conservative leadership race, Patrick Brown, will appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee investigating allegations about the involvement of agents of the Government of India in electoral interference and criminal activities in Canada.
Brown has previously declined to appear before it. He put out a statement on Dec. 2 on X, “While I main my objection to the committee’s summons, I understand and will comply with my legal obligation to appear.”
He said matters of foreign interference must be probed in-depth, but that he was against politicising such interferences. He asserted: “I have no reason to be drawn into partisan disputes unfolding in Ottawa.”
The mayor’s statement offered the context for his observation: “I have no reason to believe that such interference altered the outcome of the 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership race. I have no evidence to contribute to the Committee’s proceedings and am concerned that my appearance has been sought for political reasons rather than matters of substantive policy.”
He argued that the public inquiry into foreign interference being led by Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue would have been a more appropriate venue. He said he was never contacted by Hogue to testify.
There are media reports, including by Radio-Canada, suggesting agents of the Indian government allegedly attempted to create impediments in Patrick Brown’s campaign for the Conservative Party leadership as members of the strong Hindu community were advised against signing up for the Mayor of Brampton.
It further said that an organization of Indo-Canadians founded at the instance of the Indian Consulate in Toronto and largely supported by Hindu organizations of the Greater Toronto Area was advised not to invite Patrick Brown for its Republic Day celebrations in 2022, the year of the leadership race.
The office of the Leader of Opposition, the media reports said, has been maintaining that it knows nothing about THE alleged foreign interference. On the other hand, the reports suggested that Brown's national campaign co-chair, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, was pressured to withdraw her support for Brown in the 2022 race. The reports further said that Rempel Garner categorically denied the allegation.
It may be pertinent to mention that Pierre Poilievre ultimately won the leadership race on the first ballot with 68 percent of available points after Patrick Brown.
Brown was disqualified by the Conservative Party Election Committee in July 2022 as he was accused of "serious wrongdoing" linked to his election financing.
He retaliated by blaming the party establishment for "wanting to make sure Poilievre did not lose".
In February this year, the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections dismissed the allegations that had been made against Brown's campaign. The commissioner after reviewing the information provided by the Conservative Party ruled that it was "not in the public interest" to pursue an investigation.
The commissioner declared the file "closed."
As mayor of Brampton, the Canadian city with the largest Sikh population, Brown had developed close ties with the Sikh community, members of his campaign said.
Brown had posted messages on X in support of farmers during the massive demonstrations in India against the Modi government's agricultural reform. Many of these farmers came from Punjab, a Sikh-majority state.
When one of the movement's supporters, actor, and activist Deep Sidhu, died in a car accident in India, Brown participated in a vigil organized by the Sikh community outside Brampton City Hall and posted a photo of the event on his Twitter account in February 2022.
Patrick Brown held Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in high esteem as the relationship between the two men developed in the early 2000s when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat. Brown had attended some of the initial sessions of Pravasi Bharati Divas.
At that time, he was a backbencher in Stephen Harper's government and president of the Canada-India Parliamentary Association.
Brown acknowledges his friendship with Narendra Modi in his autobiography by referring to the royal treatment he received through his connection with Modi.
He even describes the Indian Prime Minister as "one of my inspirations in politics," by citing his economic achievements.
He, however, fell apart with him after expressing his concerns about the religious-nationalist character of the Modi government.
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