Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday testified it “wasn’t appropriate” to expel MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) from the Liberal caucus though he was under security surveillance. Trudeau said he assumed it was up to Elections Canada to determine whether Dong had contacts with foreign agents.

“As Liberal Party leader I have on many, many different occasions had to ask people to step down,” Trudeau told the Commission on Foreign Interference. “In this case I didn’t feel there was sufficient or sufficiently credible information that would justify this very significant step as to remove a candidate in these circumstances,” he added.

Evidence shows Dong narrowly won a contested September 12, 2019 Liberal nomination race with support from Mandarin-speaking foreign students bused in from the New Oriental International College Academy in Markham, Ont., located outside the riding. Trudeau days later was told Dong was under surveillance by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.