Brian Lee Crowley, founder the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think tank focused on Canadian national issues, has unpleasant things to say about China’s presence in Canada. Crowley pulls no punches in an article published this month by The Telegraph in the U.K.
‘Canada’s Secret Service Is Fighting A Hidden Civil War’
“The leaks reveal a China hell-bent on suborning Canadian institutions. The allegations include: charges of Chinese interference in elections at every level (federal, provincial and municipal), the existence of Chinese police stations operating with impunity on Canadian soil, the intimidation of Canadians and permanent residents of Chinese origin, and threats to the families of prominent Canadian politicians.”
A motherload of condemnation it is– from the foreign press. It’s Justin Trudeau’s good fortune that he has been successful in taking the anti-China wind out of media sails in Canada.
Stalling, excuses, futile appointments(David Johnson), obfuscation and delays. Government understand the methodology. Each time a piece of damnation bubbles to the political surface, drawing out conclusions for as long as possible is the remedy. Part of which is preventing articles like Crowley’s from penetrating the consciousness of Canadian society.
This man is no conspiracy theory-pushing flake. He holds degrees from McGill and the London School of Economics, including a doctorate in political economy from the latter. His doctoral thesis focused on F.A. Hayek’s social and political philosophy and was published by the Oxford University Press.
“This civil war doesn’t pit Quebec nationalists against English Canada, but centres instead on China.”
“For decades Canada’s national security establishment has sounded the alarm about foreign authoritarian interference. Their dire warnings were ignored.”
By the Liberal Party of Canada, that is. And why not? It’s a reciprocal relationship. The government of China prop-up Justin Trudeau, and in return receive open doors for communist infiltration of Canadian society.
Think this to be a paranoid delusion? Is it not a fact that ex-Liberal PM Pierre Trudeau was a communist enthusiast who opened the doors for China to waltz into Canada, impacting everything from mineral resources to public education.
Sam Cooper is a Canadian investigative journalist and best-selling author, best known for his coverage of Canada-China relations. In a recent article, Cooper writes:
“Based on recent information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), those efforts allegedly involve payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Placing agents into the offices of MPs in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials to gain leverage in Ottawa, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the People’s Republic of China (PRC) views as threats to its interests.”
And still we wait in silence. In an authentic democratic society, inclusive of media independence, these developments would bring down the ruling government.
The fact that it isn’t happening tells us that Canada is no longer an authentic democracy. Adding to the absurdity is the fact that Trudeau’s Liberals are more concerned about uncovering and punishing those who leaked the information than preventing China’s infiltration of our federal political arena.
It’s a surreal experience not once alluded to by mainstream media. Their job has transitioned away from objective news reporting. As financed by the Feds, the role is monolithic in intent: to preserve Justin Trudeau’s pseudo-dictatorship indefinitely. If and when a replacement is appointed, CBC and corporate media will back that candidate.
On the opposite side of the political spectrum is the Conservative Party. Media’s goal here is equally one-dimensional. No matter who leads the party, depict that individual as “right-wing,” racist and homophobic. Crush their potential for victory at all costs.
All of which fits into the pro-China bag that government, media and academia currently work out of. It should come as no surprise that our government is today chock full of China-apologists.
One of them is Senator Yuen Pau Woo, arguably Canada’s greatest China-pusher, appointed to the Senate by PM Trudeau in 2016. Another goes back to the days of Conservative PM Stephen Harper.
Senator Victor Oh, Vice-Chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association, thinks that our China-detractors are serious meanies.
In a video posted to WeChat, Senator Oh spoke about the “need to raise money to cover costs for [people affected] by all of these unreasonable reporters who try to smear Chinese and discredit Chinese.”
Commonly known as the “race card,” we witness how the China-lovers conflate the issues to arrive at a favourite hobby indulged in by Justin Trudeau and his motley crew of neo-communists.
It’s “racism”– end of story. Senators Victor Oh and Yuen Pau Woo wish it was. Likely, they will get all they ask for. The Chinese interference will eventually blow over. Until this is achieved, no federal election will be called.
Upon which we leap to the Mount Everest of foreign infiltration in Canadian society:
Did the government of China win the past federal election for Justin Trudeau?
According to a series of reports in the Globe and Mail newspaper and by Global News, CSIS intelligence sources, “China provided secret funding through its Toronto consulate to 11 candidates who ran in the 2019 federal election.”
The popular vote was won by the Conservative Party, meaning that 11 ridings may have been enough to seal the deal for Trudeau’s Liberals. Media breathe not a word about the possibility.
Is China in charge, or what? It’s the $8,888,888 million dollar question which, more than likely, won’t be answered for decades, if ever.
Justin Trudeau empowers China, damages democracy, and because of media, gets away with it. Isn’t post-modern Canada just the greatest thing?
Senator Victor Oh and former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan were signatories among those who signed a 2020 letter from an Ontario-based Chinese-Canadian business association to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official saying the association has been promoting China’s image in fighting COVID-19 and pledges continuing support of the “great motherland.”
Oh signed as the association’s honorary president as well as a Canadian senator and “chair” of the Canada-China Legislative Association (CACN). Oh’s biography on the Senate of Canada website indicates he is the “Vice-Chair” of CACN, though his name currently is not on the members page of the association.
Chan, for his part, signed as CACN’s honorary president as well as a former minister of international trade of Ontario and an honorary citizen of Jiangsu Province. https://fb9aa48ced4f4ea33ff145de51fa2d12.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
The March 27, 2020, letter by the CCP official, Lou Qinjian, former secretary of the Jiangsu provincial committee, bears the letterhead of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CCP. It is addressed directly to Jiang as well as all overseas Chinese from Jiangsu in Canada. It is co-signed by another CCP official, Wu Zhenglong, then-governor of Jiangsu. Jiangsu is a province on China’s east coast, north of Shanghai.
Neither Oh nor Chan responded to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
‘Telling China’s Story Well’
In what Jiang described as a “letter from home,” CCP official Lou’s letter expressed care and concern toward the overseas Chinese in Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic and said they will “resolutely implement [Chinese] President Xi Jinping’s instructions and requirements, and make the utmost effort to provide help and support for the health and safety of all overseas compatriots.”
Meanwhile, the letter also urged the JCCC to take advantage of its connections as a Chinese diaspora association to promote to Canadians a positive image of Beijing’s pandemic response.
“[We] hope that you will make use of overseas Chinese as a bridge to convey confidence, actively tell well the story of the fight against the pandemic at home [in China], promote the image of the motherland as a responsible major country, and demonstrate the good citizenship of overseas Jiangsu people,” the letter said.
“Telling China’s story well” is a phrase introduced by Chinese leader Xi in 2013, encapsulating his approach of messaging on the world stage to promote the image of the communist regime.
Response Letter
The ccmedia.news article included images of the three pages of Jiang’s response letter, dated April 10, 2020, addressed only to Lou and bearing Jiang’s signature on the second page and the signatures of Oh, Chan, and over a dozen other senior JCCC members on the third page.
In the response letter, Jiang expressed gratitude for the “special letter from home,” saying that following that lead, other Jiangsu government departments have also reached out to show their care and concern, including the Jiangsu Provincial United Front Work Department (UFWD). The UFWD functions as the CCP’s “primary foreign interference tool” working to co-opt international politicians and facilitate espionage, among other activities that endanger national security, says a 2020 report by Public Safety Canada citing research by think tanks.
Former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan speaks at a rally held to condemn protests in Hong Kong, in Markham, Ont., on Aug. 11, 2019. (Yi Ling/The Epoch Times)
Jiang also said his group has been committed to the cause of promoting China’s image in Canada since early in the pandemic.
“Since the early days of China’s fight against the pandemic, we’ve made use of the special resources and channels of many JCCC members to tell the story of China’s fight against the pandemic to the Canadian government and people,” Jiang wrote.
“Through extensive and in-depth publicity, China’s demeanour [image] as a responsible, courageous, competent, and cooperative great power … is receiving more and more understanding, support, and appreciation from the Canadian government, people, and overseas Chinese!”
The ccmedia.news article included photos of Oh and Chan signing the letter.
Oh, a Conservative senator representing Ontario, was appointed to the Senate in 2013.
Chan, who was a cabinet member in the previous Liberal government in Ontario, is now deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., a city that is part of the Greater Toronto Area. At the time of the signing of the letter, he was not a public office holder.
The Ontario provincial government was reportedly warned by CSIS in 2010 about its fear that Chan was under the influence of China, according to the Globe and Mail. Chan has said he is taking legal action against the Globe for its reporting.
As reported previously by The Epoch Times, Chan has spoken against anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong, and supported the regime’s national security law for the region. Canada and other democratic countries have condemned the new law as suppressing freedoms.
Affiliation
The JCCC, established in 2002, says its goal is to promote trade and business collaboration between Ontario and Jiangsu. It has over 1,000 members, including elites in the business, government, and academic communities, according to its website.
Jiang Rui, who began serving as JCCC president in 2018, has also held positions in organizations associated with the CCP, according to reports in local Jiangsu media and state media in China.
Apart from being JCCC president, Jiang is also an overseas representative of the provincial-level Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body in the People’s Republic of China, and also a key body of the CCP’s UFWD, according to ourjiangsu.com, a Chinese website directly owned by the Jiangsu provincial branch of the UFWD.
The Epoch Times reached out to Jiang for comment via the JCCC but didn’t hear back.
The report included photos taken at a conference on the establishment of the Jiangsu CCPPNR, held on Jan. 9, 2020, in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. A number of senior CCP officials, including the vice governor of the province, members of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CCP, and the head of the UFWD, attended the conference, according to an article posted on the Jiangsu provincial government website.
The CCPPNR has branches in many countries, including two in Canada and at least 20 in the United States. In October 2020, the U.S. State Department designated a CCPPNR branch, the Washington, D.C.-based National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, as a foreign mission of the Chinese regime, describing it as a front organization of the UFWD.
Chinese Employee of Hydro Quebec Arrested for Economic Espionage
Below are details of the arrest in mid-November of a Hydro Quebec employee, one Yuesheng Wang for spying — economic espionage — for Red China. Interestingly, he wasn’t caught by the Mounties — the Mounties don’t ‘always get their man” — but by Hydro Quebec security. Charles Burton, a former professor of Political Science at Brock University and now a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute told Toronto 1010 Talk Radio (November 16): “Canada doesn’t have the resources or political will to root out” Red Chinese espionage.
“A former employee of Hydro-Québec made a first appearance in court Tuesday on charges that he fraudulently obtained a trade secret for the benefit of China, and he was ordered to remain detained ahead of a bail hearing. Yuesheng Wang, 35, appeared in Quebec court in Longueuil by videoconference and was assisted by a translator. Wang was detained at the RCMP’s headquarters in Montreal.
The resident of Candiac, on Montreal’s South Shore, is the first person in Canada to be charged with economic espionage under the Security of Information Act. Wang was also formally charged on Tuesday with three violations of the Criminal Code: using a computer fraudulently and without authorization; obtaining a trade secret by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means; and breach of trust.
Federal prosecutor Marc Cigana objected to bail in Wang’s case.“It’s our opinion, after studying all the circumstances and the evidence, that Mr. Wang is a flight risk,” Cigana told reporters after the court hearing.
Wang is alleged to have committed the crimes between Jan. 1, 2018 and Aug. 22, 2022, in the course of his duties at Hydro-Québec. Three of the four charges each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The breach of trust charge carries a maximum five-year sentence. The RCMP alleges that Wang conducted research for Chinese research centres and a Chinese university and that he published scientific articles and filed patents with them rather than with the Quebec utility. Police also alleged he used information without his employer’s consent, harming Hydro-Québec’s intellectual property.
The RCMP said its national security enforcement team began an investigation in August after receiving a complaint from Hydro-Québec’s corporate security branch.
Wang, who has a limited knowledge of English and does not speak French, shook his head as the charges were translated into Mandarin for him in court on Tuesday.[Little English; no French — how did this guy get into Canada? Who specifically — the bureaucrats name, please — was responsible?]He tried to have his bail hearing held immediately, but was advised by his lawyer to delay. Quebec court Judge Anne-Marie Beauchemin ordered Wang remanded to a detention centre.
The case was put off until Friday, when more evidence will be disclosed and when the parties will discuss scheduling a bail hearing. Neither lawyer could say following Tuesday’s hearing whether Wang has Canadian citizenship. [Isn’t that a rather important point?]
Wesley Wark, an expert on national security and intelligence issues, said the Wang case isn’t the first economic espionage incident in the country but is the first case that has led to charges under the 21-year-old Security of Information Act. Wark, a senior fellow at the think tank Centre for International Governance Innovation, said the case is “unusual.” …
‘It takes us into the world of university research and university publications, and it’s an important area to wade into, but also very complex in terms of being able to then reach back and pin an economic espionage charge against him.’ The definition of “trade secret” is very broad, Wark said, which may make the case difficult to prove in court. He said the charges demonstrate that much of the espionage activity in Canada is occurring outside the orbit of the federal government and within the private sector.
Hydro-Québec said Wang was a researcher who worked on battery materials with the Centre of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, known as CETEES. The centre develops technology for electric vehicles and for energy-storage systems.
In a statement, the utility said its security team launched a probe before it called federal authorities, adding that Wang has been fired. Wang, Hydro-Québec noted, didn’t have access to the utility’s “core mission,” and it said his access was revoked when suspicions arose.” (Montreal Gazette, November 15, 2022)
It’s maddening that we aren’t allowed even to know Wang’s citizenship status. How did this person who speaks no French and little English even qualify to immigrate to Canada? The issue of double loyalty may be a political hand grenade. We’re not even allowed to ask the question. So, let’s put it a little differently. Shouldn’t Chinese immigrants, especially those from Red China, have to give strong evidence of their loyalty to Canada before being accepted? The few immigrants from Taiwan are mostly fiercely anti-communist as are many from Hong Kong. Red China is a different matter. Some immigrants are anti-communist. Some come here for a better and much cheaper education and a much cleaner environment than the Chinese Mainland. Many remain fiercely proud of China which is now an economic powerhouse and a resurgent military power. It’s these people who are susceptible to calls to help Red China through espionage.
A week later, we discovered a little more about the alleged spy: “Wang, a Chinese national on a work visa for his job with the Quebec utility, put up his suburban Montreal home and a downtown condominium as an assurance he would remain in Canada.” (National Post, November 25, 2022) Why was he granted a work visa? What security check was done on him? How did this 35-year old amass so much property? Was he getting by frugally on a bowl of rice and crickets per day?
Charles Burton warns: “The [Red Chinese] propaganda campaign, which includes conspiracy theories promulgated by pro-Beijing Chinese language media in Canada, threatens our democracy. It already cost Canadian [Conservative] MPs of Chinese heritage their seats in the last election, and because we do nothing about it, we can expect more in the next election. The Chinese-language media’s hate-mongering includes accusations of pervasive racism against everybody in Canada with Chinese ancestry. Readers of China’s WeChat and other platforms are implored to respond by identifying with the Motherland and becoming loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.
Canada seems incapable of doing anything about China, due to the incompatibility of the Ottawa doctrine that we must maintain close relations with Beijing regardless of public opinion. When China’s ambassador in Ottawa threatened Canada about crossing a ‘red line’ on Taiwan, warning officials to draw lessons from the past (read: hostage diplomacy) if our MPs set foot in Taiwan, our prime minister didn’t even condemn the remarks, but simply urged MPs to reflect on the ‘consequences’ of such a visit.” (Toronto Star, August 28, 2022)
Canadian intelligence warned PM Trudeau that China covertly funded 2019 election candidates: Sources
By Sam Cooper Global News Published November 7, 2022 11 min read
WATCH: How China allegedly interfered in the 2019 Canadian election – Nov 7, 2022
Canadian intelligence officials have warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that China has allegedly been targeting Canada with a vast campaign of foreign interference, which includes funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election, according to Global News sources.
Delivered to the prime minister and several cabinet members in a series of briefings and memos first presented in January, the allegations included other detailed examples of Beijing’s efforts to further its influence and, in turn, subvert Canada’s democratic process, sources said.
Based on recent information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), those efforts allegedly involve payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), placing agents into the offices of MPs in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials to gain leverage in Ottawa, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the People’s Republic of China (PRC) views as threats to its interests.
CSIS told Global News it could not answer some questions for this story. But the service confirmed it has identified the PRC’s foreign interference in Canada, which can include covert funding to influence election outcomes.
“The Chinese Communist Party … is using all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty,” CSIS stated.
The briefings did not identify the 2019 candidates. But the alleged election interference network included members from both the Liberal and Conservative parties, according to sources with knowledge of the briefs.
Global News was not able to confirm from the sources which cabinet ministers may have been privy to the briefs nor the specific timing that the information was reportedly shared. 2:21 Canada ‘creating new tools’ to protect institutions against China, others seeking to influence elections
Chief among the allegations is that CSIS reported that China’s Toronto consulate directed a large clandestine transfer of funds to a network of at least eleven federal election candidates and numerous Beijing operatives who worked as their campaign staffers. Advertisement
The funds were allegedly transferred through an Ontario provincial MPP and a federal election candidate staffer. Separate sources aware of the situation said a CCP proxy group, acting as an intermediary, transferred around $250,000.
The 2022 briefs said that some, but not all, members of the alleged network are witting affiliates of the Chinese Communist Party.The intelligence did not conclude whether CSIS believes the network successfully influenced the October 2019 election results, sources say.
CSIS can capture its findings through warrants that allow electronic interception of communications among Chinese consulate officials and Canadian politicians and staffers.
Sources close to this situation say they are revealing details from the 2022 briefs to give Canadians a clearer understanding of China’s attacks on Canada’s democratic system. Out of fear of retribution, they have asked their names be withheld.
In response to the briefing details, experts say the alleged interference points to weakness in Canada’s outdated espionage and counterintelligence laws, which sophisticated interference networks run by China, Russia and Iran are exploiting.
Still, the 2022 intelligence asserts that China conducts more foreign interference than any other nation, and interference threats to Canada increased in 2015 when Chinese president Xi Jinping elevated the CCP’s so-called United Front influence networks abroad.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did not directly answer a series of questions from Global News, including whether or not Prime Minister Trudeau was briefed in 2022 on Canadian intelligence that alleged China had covertly funded a clandestine network of candidates in the 2019 election.
It also did not respond to a question on the need for tighter federal rules against foreign influence on Canadian politics.
“Protecting Canadians’ security is our top priority. Threats, harassment, or intimidation of Canadian citizens are unacceptable, and all allegations of interference are investigated thoroughly by our security agencies,” a statement from the PMO said. “As threats evolve, so must the methods used to address them. That is why the Prime Minister has given the Minister of Public Safety the mandate to improve collaboration between Canadian security agencies.”
Conservative Party leadership did not respond to Global News questions by deadline for this story. 0:37 China responds to Trudeau, Global News investigation, says it has no interest in ‘Canada’s internal affairs’
“We simply don’t have a prosecutorial end game to deal with foreign interference,” said Dan Stanton, a former CSIS officer who studies Chinese interference, but isn’t privy to recent CSIS reporting. “The sophistication of the threat: it is not the guy with the fedora and black coat, like the old days with the KGB. The whole point of influence networks is that anyone can be used by a foreign state as a co-optee, or agent, or source.”
Stanton and other experts told Global News that CSIS benefits from modernized counter-terror laws that have enabled the service to mitigate terror planning and funding networks since 9/11, but Canada’s espionage laws are stuck in the Cold War era.
“So, until we make legislative changes on interference,” Stanton said, “it’s just CSIS telling our politicians, ‘Hey, be careful out there.’”
In April 2021, a private members bill in the House of Commons called for a foreign influence registry, but it did not become law.
Kenny Chiu, the B.C. Conservative MP who wrote the bill, was subsequently targeted by the CCP’s election interference network, sources said. Chiu says his law would have compelled anyone working for hostile regimes, such as Russia and Iran and China, to declare their interests, and this transparency would protect Canada’s democracy.
The Toronto Consulate and Chinese officials in Ottawa did not respond to questions from Global News about allegations in the 2022 briefs.
Money and influence
Interference on Canadian soil is orchestrated by the CCP’s powerful United Front Work Department, which mobilizes large sections of society abroad to fulfill Chinese Communist Party objectives, according to the 2022 briefs.
United Front operations can include politicians, media, business, student and community groups, and are aimed at consolidating support for CCP policy as well as targeting critics and the causes of ethnic groups seen as “poisons” by the CCP, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans.
Several federal candidates from Canada’s 2019 federal election met with China-based United Front Work Department officials, the intelligence alleges, but did not identify the politicians. Advertisement
While Xi’s United Front is not itself an espionage agency, intelligence briefs allege its networks in Canada facilitate interference operations by China’s foreign espionage service, the Ministry of State Security.
The briefs also reported that Xi’s United Front operates through Chinese consulates in Canada, from which officials direct funds into Canada’s political system, using CCP proxies.
The CSIS briefs also point to the 2014 imbroglio over Toronto District School Board’s partnership with the Confucius Institute, China’s controversial state-funded, culture-education program. Many parents, teachers and students opposed the involvement of these schools, which are guided by the United Front Work Department, according to the U.S. State Department.
According to the briefs, the Toronto Chinese Consulate allegedly transferred $1 million to unidentified proxy groups, which in turn organized protests to support the continued integration of the program into Toronto’s district school board system. That effort ultimately failed when the TDSB voted to sever its ties to the organization.
But China’s alleged United Front campaigns extend beyond financing to the co-opting of politicians and harassment of critics.
One of the more dramatic allegations from the briefs pertained to a pivotal February 2021 vote in the House of Commons, in which members would either support or reject a United Nations resolution declaring China’s treatment of the Uyghur people a genocide.
The intelligence also alleges that, in the aftermath of the House vote, Chinese intelligence agents conducted in-depth background research into MPs who voted in favour of the resolution, declaring China guilty of genocide.
The agents studied the ridings of specific, targeted MPs in order to learn what industries and companies were present and whether these companies had economic links to China.
The objective was to judge whether China could leverage the local economies of Canadian politicians seen as the CCP’s enemies, sources said.
In addition, it was alleged that before the September 2021 federal election, a small number of MPs reported they feared for their families and their reputations and believed they were being targeted in operations to hurt their election chances.
One of the MPs whom the CCP allegedly targeted, MP Kenny Chiu, said he believes Chinese agents succeeded in smearing him as a racist in WeChat and Mandarin-language media reports. As the member from Steveston-Richmond, Chiu had advocated for transparent elections in Hong Kong, voted in favour of declaring China’s actions in Xinjiang a genocide, and tabled his April 2021 bill calling for a foreign influence registry.
“The CCP didn’t have to send me a death threat, they just tried to kill my political career,” Chiu said in an interview.
“So ahead of the 2021 election, I was given a distancing treatment by Chinese-language media. And during the campaign people were shutting the door in my face. The messages I was getting were, ‘Kenny Chiu is a racist. Kenny is Anti-Asian.’”
Some pundits, however, argued that Chiu swung his riding for the Conservatives in 2019 and the riding simply reverted to the Liberals two years later.
Chinese intelligence in the field
The 2022 briefs alleged that one official in Toronto’s Chinese Consulate directed a 2019 federal election-campaign staffer to control and monitor their candidates’ meetings. These efforts included preventing meetings with representatives of Taiwan, a democratic country that Beijing claims is a renegade province.
This kind of interference extends to elected officials as well, according to the briefs, which referred to instances in which clandestine operatives were placed alongside elected officials in an attempt to control the policy choices of federal MPs.
“I’m not surprised at all,” said Harry Tseng, Taiwan’s deputy minister of foreign affairs and top diplomat in Ottawa. “This type of activity is directed from Beijing in many consulates abroad. I think China can be that coercive because they have a very comprehensive list of Canadian politicians.
And when they can find a connection to China, they can pull a string to influence the Canadians.”
The 2022 briefs also detailed Chinese intelligence efforts to infiltrate, surveil and “mess with” Chinese diaspora communities.
Fenella Sung, a Hong Kong Canadian community leader in Vancouver, said she has long believed that Chinese intelligence has infiltrated Canadian diaspora groups, by using business inducements and “subtle psychological warfare.”
She also believes that China’s United Front controls and funds an “interchangeable” network of candidates and nominations in some British Columbia and Ontario ridings.
Turnisa Matsedik-Qira, a Uyghur-Canadian activist, said many in her community believe Chinese agents monitored and harassed them. She provided photos from her December 2021 Facebook posting that showed one alleged incident. In the post, Matsedik-Qira says she was protesting outside the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver when a van pulled up, and two men jumped out. Advertisement
“One of them spit on me and said, “I wish all your people died,” she said.
“I’m scared and worried for my safety. I think he is connected to the Chinese Consulate, for sure. The Consulate has many people in Canada working for China.”
Coerced Repatriations
The 2022 briefs also shed light on the PRC’s so-called Fox Hunt, a high-profile international campaign in President Xi’s efforts to battle corruption and persuade economic fugitives to return to China.
National security experts argue the Fox Hunt is less about battling corruption and more about the CCP extending tentacles of repression into diaspora communities abroad and clamping down on rivals and dissidents.
The 2022 briefs alleged that one of China’s Fox Hunt targets in Canada had connections to the Politburo, the CCP’s elite inner circle of leaders.
Concern was raised in 2020 when a Chinese police agent worked with a Canadian police officer to repatriate an economic fugitive. In another coerced repatriation, Chinese police brought a Fox Hunt target’s brother and father into Canada and would not allow them to return to China unless the economic fugitive also agreed to return, the 2022 briefs alleged.
A new report from the Spanish human rights NGO SafeGuard Defenders bolsters these suspicions, identifying three alleged secret Chinese police stations in Toronto, among 50 similar worldwide, which are used to repatriate Fox Hunt targets. SafeGuard Defenders cited Chinese state records that connect the Toronto locations to police bureaus in Fujian province.
Dan Stanton, the former CSIS official, and David Mulroney, Canada’s former ambassador to China, said that Canada is more exposed than other Western democracies to China’s interference, and yet as the United States, UK and Australia strengthen their counter-interference laws and ramp up investigations into Xi’s United Front networks, Ottawa remains strangely inactive.
“The two most worrying aspects of this are direct interference in our electoral process, and we’re now seeing evidence of this,” Mulroney said, “and harassment of people in Canada of Uyghur and Tibetan origin who have vulnerable relatives back home.”
Global News also described some of the allegations sources say were briefed to Trudeau in 2022, including China’s election interference and targeting of MPs and diaspora communities in Canada, to Dennis Molinaro, a former senior CSIS analyst and expert on foreign interference, who now teaches legal studies at Ontario Tech University.
Molinaro said if the CSIS intelligence warnings sources say were provided to Trudeau are confirmed as accurate, they raise concerns about why the government hasn’t yet responded by tabling new legislation to counter the threats.
“The level of foreign interference activity you describe is serious and alarming,” Molinaro said. “And if confirmed, the level of interference you describe says to me that foreign adversaries understand the legislative loopholes that exist in Canada and are taking full advantage of them.”
I don’t say this often, but I think the Trudeau government deserves some praise for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic this week. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, in particular, has been impressive in setting the record straight and providing a calm and intelligent line of reasoning behind each government decision.
There are, however, some glaring exceptions to this statement. I’m talking about Health Minister Patty Hajdu and her despicable parroting of Chinese Communist Party propaganda during Thursday afternoon’s media briefing.
CTV’s Ian Brown asked the COVID-19 panel to respond to a Bloomberg news story about a classified U.S. intelligence report on China hiding the extent of the coronavirus outbreak by under-reporting the number of cases and deaths.
“China’s numbers are fake,” the report concludes.
“There’s no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way,” Hajdu said sternly.
This was a remarkable moment. A top member of Trudeau’s inner circle was ardently defending a communist regime known for grave human rights abuses and lying on the world stage, while tacitly accusing our top ally and most important international partner of spreading false information.
To add insult to injury, when Brown tried to push back with facts, Hajdu lashed out at him, accusing the reporter of “feeding into conspiracy theories.”
Not only was this an autocratic response to a very reasonable question — making the minister look more like a Chinese official than an elected civil servant in a liberal democracy — but Hajdu’s comments are also highly ignorant and in contradiction to known facts.
There have been plenty of indications that the data coming out of China is false, starting with the fact that China has admitted so much.
In mid-February, China was widely criticized for not including individuals who tested positive for coronavirus but were not showing symptoms in official tallies. Last week, the Chinese government finally changed course to include asymptomatic cases — marking the eighth different definition of what constitutes a coronavirus infection in China’s official reporting since the outbreak began in late 2019.
On March 11, a Southampton University study found that had China acted just one, two or three weeks sooner, “cases could have been reduced by 66%, 86% and 95% respectively – significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease.”
Instead, China spent the early days arresting doctors and journalists who spoke out about the deadly virus, while adamantly denying human to human transmission.
While there is no free press in China, and the communist regime expelled American journalists on March 17, there have been some independent reports calling China’s numbers into suspicion.
On March 27, a Radio Free Asia report contested the official death toll in Wuhan — a large metropolitan area the size of New York City and ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak.
While China claims the death toll in Wuhan is around 2,500, Radio Free Asia reports that incinerators at the city’s seven funeral homes have been “working around the clock.” They report that families have been given government stipends to cover the cost of cremation in exchange for their silence — “hush money” to keep the truth from the world.
Radio Free Asia estimates the real death toll in Wuhan to be somewhere between 42,000 and 46,800.
China’s evolving narrative and criminal cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak is no doubt to blame for the world’s lack of preparation for this deadly pandemic.
When the world finally navigates through this public health pandemic and resulting economic crisis, the global community must come together to hold China to account for its reprehensible actions that led to untold death and destruction.
China deserves to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and ex-communicated from the global community. We should similarly judge minister Hajdu for her knee-jerk defence of the truly indefensible.
We’re asking readers, like you, to make a contribution in support of True North’s fact-based, independent journalism.
Unlike the mainstream media, True North isn’t getting a government bailout. Instead, we depend on the generosity of Canadians like you.
How can a media outlet be trusted to remain neutral and fair if they’re beneficiaries of a government handout? We don’t think they can.
This is why independent media in Canada is more important than ever. If you’re able, please make a tax-deductible donation to True North today. Thank you so much.
I don’t say this often, but I think the Trudeau government deserves some praise for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic this week. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, in particular, has been impressive in setting the record straight and providing a calm and intelligent line of reasoning behind each government decision.
There are, however, some glaring exceptions to this statement. I’m talking about Health Minister Patty Hajdu and her despicable parroting of Chinese Communist Party propaganda during Thursday afternoon’s media briefing.
CTV’s Ian Brown asked the COVID-19 panel to respond to a Bloomberg news story about a classified U.S. intelligence report on China hiding the extent of the coronavirus outbreak by under-reporting the number of cases and deaths.
“China’s numbers are fake,” the report concludes.
“There’s no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way,” Hajdu said sternly.
This was a remarkable moment. A top member of Trudeau’s inner circle was ardently defending a communist regime known for grave human rights abuses and lying on the world stage, while tacitly accusing our top ally and most important international partner of spreading false information.
To add insult to injury, when Brown tried to push back with facts, Hajdu lashed out at him, accusing the reporter of “feeding into conspiracy theories.”
Not only was this an autocratic response to a very reasonable question — making the minister look more like a Chinese official than an elected civil servant in a liberal democracy — but Hajdu’s comments are also highly ignorant and in contradiction to known facts.
There have been plenty of indications that the data coming out of China is false, starting with the fact that China has admitted so much.
In mid-February, China was widely criticized for not including individuals who tested positive for coronavirus but were not showing symptoms in official tallies. Last week, the Chinese government finally changed course to include asymptomatic cases — marking the eighth different definition of what constitutes a coronavirus infection in China’s official reporting since the outbreak began in late 2019.
On March 11, a Southampton University study found that had China acted just one, two or three weeks sooner, “cases could have been reduced by 66%, 86% and 95% respectively – significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease.”
Instead, China spent the early days arresting doctors and journalists who spoke out about the deadly virus, while adamantly denying human to human transmission.
While there is no free press in China, and the communist regime expelled American journalists on March 17, there have been some independent reports calling China’s numbers into suspicion.
On March 27, a Radio Free Asia report contested the official death toll in Wuhan — a large metropolitan area the size of New York City and ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak.
While China claims the death toll in Wuhan is around 2,500, Radio Free Asia reports that incinerators at the city’s seven funeral homes have been “working around the clock.” They report that families have been given government stipends to cover the cost of cremation in exchange for their silence — “hush money” to keep the truth from the world.
Radio Free Asia estimates the real death toll in Wuhan to be somewhere between 42,000 and 46,800.
China’s evolving narrative and criminal cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak is no doubt to blame for the world’s lack of preparation for this deadly pandemic.
When the world finally navigates through this public health pandemic and resulting economic crisis, the global community must come together to hold China to account for its reprehensible actions that led to untold death and destruction.
China deserves to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and ex-communicated from the global community. We should similarly judge minister Hajdu for her knee-jerk defence of the truly indefensible.
We’re asking readers, like you, to make a contribution in support of True North’s fact-based, independent journalism.
Unlike the mainstream media, True North isn’t getting a government bailout. Instead, we depend on the generosity of Canadians like you.
How can a media outlet be trusted to remain neutral and fair if they’re beneficiaries of a government handout? We don’t think they can.
This is why independent media in Canada is more important than ever. If you’re able, please make a tax-deductible donation to True North today. Thank you so much.
2:21 Canada ‘creating new tools’ to protect institutions against China, others seeking to influence elections
0:37 China responds to Trudeau, Global News investigation, says it has no interest in ‘Canada’s internal affairs’
I don’t say this often, but I think the Trudeau government deserves some praise for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic this week. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, in particular, has been impressive in setting the record straight and providing a calm and intelligent line of reasoning behind each government decision.
There are, however, some glaring exceptions to this statement. I’m talking about Health Minister Patty Hajdu and her despicable parroting of Chinese Communist Party propaganda during Thursday afternoon’s media briefing.
CTV’s Ian Brown asked the COVID-19 panel to respond to a Bloomberg news story about a classified U.S. intelligence report on China hiding the extent of the coronavirus outbreak by under-reporting the number of cases and deaths.
“China’s numbers are fake,” the report concludes.
“There’s no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way,” Hajdu said sternly.
This was a remarkable moment. A top member of Trudeau’s inner circle was ardently defending a communist regime known for grave human rights abuses and lying on the world stage, while tacitly accusing our top ally and most important international partner of spreading false information.
To add insult to injury, when Brown tried to push back with facts, Hajdu lashed out at him, accusing the reporter of “feeding into conspiracy theories.”
Not only was this an autocratic response to a very reasonable question — making the minister look more like a Chinese official than an elected civil servant in a liberal democracy — but Hajdu’s comments are also highly ignorant and in contradiction to known facts.
There have been plenty of indications that the data coming out of China is false, starting with the fact that China has admitted so much.
In mid-February, China was widely criticized for not including individuals who tested positive for coronavirus but were not showing symptoms in official tallies. Last week, the Chinese government finally changed course to include asymptomatic cases — marking the eighth different definition of what constitutes a coronavirus infection in China’s official reporting since the outbreak began in late 2019.
On March 11, a Southampton University study found that had China acted just one, two or three weeks sooner, “cases could have been reduced by 66%, 86% and 95% respectively – significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease.”
Instead, China spent the early days arresting doctors and journalists who spoke out about the deadly virus, while adamantly denying human to human transmission.
While there is no free press in China, and the communist regime expelled American journalists on March 17, there have been some independent reports calling China’s numbers into suspicion.
On March 27, a Radio Free Asia report contested the official death toll in Wuhan — a large metropolitan area the size of New York City and ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak.
While China claims the death toll in Wuhan is around 2,500, Radio Free Asia reports that incinerators at the city’s seven funeral homes have been “working around the clock.” They report that families have been given government stipends to cover the cost of cremation in exchange for their silence — “hush money” to keep the truth from the world.
Radio Free Asia estimates the real death toll in Wuhan to be somewhere between 42,000 and 46,800.
China’s evolving narrative and criminal cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak is no doubt to blame for the world’s lack of preparation for this deadly pandemic.
When the world finally navigates through this public health pandemic and resulting economic crisis, the global community must come together to hold China to account for its reprehensible actions that led to untold death and destruction.
China deserves to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and ex-communicated from the global community. We should similarly judge minister Hajdu for her knee-jerk defence of the truly indefensible.
We’re asking readers, like you, to make a contribution in support of True North’s fact-based, independent journalism.
Unlike the mainstream media, True North isn’t getting a government bailout. Instead, we depend on the generosity of Canadians like you.
How can a media outlet be trusted to remain neutral and fair if they’re beneficiaries of a government handout? We don’t think they can.
This is why independent media in Canada is more important than ever. If you’re able, please make a tax-deductible donation to True North today. Thank you so much.