The Battle To Get An Inquiry Into Foreign Interference In Our Elections

 

Justin with XiThere were calls from the opposition parties for months to call a public inquiry into information that China has also interfered in Canada's federal elections by funding pro-China candidates while intimidating and spreading false information about candidates who do not share the views of the Chinese government.


Justin Trudeau has tried to delay and disrupt any investigation into the claims. At first he tried to dismiss the claims of interference as inaccurate or racist. Then he Special Rapporteur Mr. Johnstonappointed a "special rapporteur", David Johnston, to look into the matter. It soon became clear that it was an attempted whitewash of the problem when Mr. Johnston stated that a full public inquiry was not needed and it was noted that he has been a personal friend of the Trudeaus for many years. When the opposition parties objected to his appointment due to a possible conflict of interest due to a perceived lack of independence, he resigned. Finally, after the delays, denials and deception by Justin Trudeau, a Quebec judge, Justice Marie-Josee Hogue, was appointed with a mandate to investigate foreign interference in Canadian elections by any foreign government or organization, including China and Russia.


At the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference, former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu said he did not feel protected when Chinese language social media labelled him as a "race traitor" and a white supremacist and discrimination against Chinese-Canadians would increase if he were re-elected that cost him his seat in the 2021 election. NDP MP Jenny Kwan and former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole were also targeted. It was revealed that Liberal, now Independent, MP Han Dong recruited Chinese high school students that were bused in to vote for him in his nomination as the Liberal candidate in an Ontario riding. CSIS, the Canadiann Security Intelligence Service, reported that the students appear to have been coerced by China's Toronto consulate and warned that they would face reprisals if they refused to go along and were provided with falsified documents. In testimony at the foreign interference inquiry Justin Trudeau said that he didn't trust the information given to him by CSIS on this matter and didn't see any reason to remove Han Dong from the ballot. Dong eventually resigned from the Liberal party after Global News reported that he had told a Chinese official that keeping kidnapped Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig imprisoned in China would be good for the Liberals in the 2021 election.


The Privy Council Office (PCO), through its Intelligence Assessment Secretariat division that providies national security alerts for the Prime Minister and his cabinet, reported that referencing the Chinese Communist Party, "Investigations into activities linked to the Canadian federal election in 2019 reveal an active foreign interference network" and at least 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election in the Toronto region alone were funded by China's Toronto consulate. China also placed agents into MPs' offices as campaign staffers, tried to corrupt former Canadian officials, and put in place aggressive campaigns against politicians viewed as contrary to its interests. It has also come to light that Chinese police stations on Canadian soil are being used to intimidate Chinese expatriates in Canada. An investigative journalist, Sam Cooper, a former Global News reporter who has reported on Chinese political interference in Canada, has just released the 3rd edition of his book, "Wilful Blindness: Foreign Interference, Elite and State Capture, How a Criminal Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West" in which he reveals that at least 50 Canadians running for Federal election in 2021 should have been under suspicion in aiding China in their election interference activities. In addition, several political staffers who were implicated as Chinese agents in the political interference scandal of the Ontario Legislature found their way into the offices of federal, mostly Liberal, MPs. The Chinese espionage operation extended to criminal activity of violent loan-sharking networks and money laundering of billions of dollars, much of it through Vancouver casinos and real estate.


Inquiry commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue had “no difficulty” concluding that there was foreign interference in certain ridings that likely impacted at least one nomination race and potentially undermined certain candidates viewed unfavourably by the Chinese government. Her report points to five countries — China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran — with China cited by CSIS as the main perpetrator, who are key threat actors against Canada and details some of their methods used to influence foreign countries. In response to her report, the government tabled a bill to help combat foreign interference, including a much-awaited foreign agent registry. The legislation also creates new offences related to foreign interference and proposes changes in the CSIS Act, which would enable the spy agency to share information with key partners outside of the government of Canada.


The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSICOP) has just issued a report with scandalous revelations that said some Members of Parliament actively participated in China's and India's interference in Canada's federal elections and continue to work for those governments, saying that they were "witting or unwitting". There have been calls for the names of the politicians to be released but the Liberals so far have said that it would not do so. The RCMP would not confirm whether or not there is an ongoing investigation into the matter. The reports of NSICOP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in prior years on foreign electoral interference were routinely ignored by Justin Trudeau and his government.


China flag and CSIS Justin Trudeau finally admitted at the Hogue inquiry that he was briefed on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's allegations that China was funding federal candidates in Canada's 2019 election, but says that he took no actions because there was insufficiently "credible" information. His chief of staff, Katie Telford, refused to answer questions about a leaked report from Canada's spy agency that said a Chinese diplomat worked to flip Richmond, BC's two ridings from Conservative to Liberal in 2021 when she appeared before the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee in April 2023. When Trudeau appeared again at the inquiry, rather than take any responsibilty for the negligence by him and his government, he went into attack mode by saying he has “the names of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates in the Conservative Party of Canada who are engaged, or at high risk of, or for whom there is clear intelligence around, foreign interference.” Who these compromised Conservatives are, Trudeau wouldn’t say. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre challenged Trudeau to name all those who are named as collaborators with foreign governments but he refused to do so.


A CSIS official said that Mr. Trudeau has been a target of Chinese influence for several years. Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin was instructed by the Chinese Communist Party to donate $1 million to Trudeau-related causes after which he would be reimbursed for the amount. It included $200,000 to the Trudeau Foundation, $50,000 to fund a statue of Pierre Trudeau, and the rest went to Pierre Trudeau-named initiatives at the University of Montreal. The donations happened after a private $1,500-a-plate Liberal fundraiser hosted by Justin Trudeau.


In 2019 two Chinese scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, a level 4 virology facility that works with the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases, were fired and stripped of their security clearance when they were escorted out of the lab along with their Chinese students. "It appears that what you might well call Chinese agents infiltrated one of the highest prized national security elements when it comes to biosecurity and biodefence," said Christian Leuprecht, a security expert and professor at the Royal Military College and Queen's University. They also brought over Chinese graduate and post-graduate students to work in her lab. The Globe and Mail reported that one of those scientists was Feihu Yan, from the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Academy of Military Medical Sciences. One of the scientists, Xiangguo Qiu, is listed as an inventor on two patents filed by official agencies in China while employed by the lab.


After three years of investigation, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service alleges that Qiu “developed deep, cooperative relationships with a variety of People’s Republic of China institutions and has intentionally transferred scientific knowledge and materials to China in order to benefit the PRC government.” The investigation found thats she had shipped sensitive materials outside of the national microbiology lab without approval to foreign countries and that she of actively covered up, or outright lied, about her affiliations with Chinese institutions, and that Cheng, her husband, participated in leaking secure information and the deception around it. Qiu was “associated to multiple ‘talent programs’ administered and funded by various PRC entities, the most prominent one being the ‘Thousand Talents Program (TTP)’,” which recruits Chinese experts from western nations to boost China’s national capabilities in science and technology. She listed herself as an employee of the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the same time as her employment at the Canadian lab. After the Liberal government shut down the the Parliamentary ethics committee’s investigation into the matter to try to avoid the scandal, Conservatives managed to bring the case to the Special Committee on the Canada-People’s Republic of China Relationship Committee who agreed to proceed with that investigation. Even though their was an RCMP investigation, they were never charged and allowed to return to China.


China's communist dictatorship over the last few years has tried to bully its neighbours, constantly threatens war with Taiwan, supports the North Korean dictatorship in its confrontations with the West, and aids Russsia in its war with Ukraine. It has also asserted its claims to ownership over 90% of the South China Sea and has built military installations on artificial islands that it created in the sea. It has a long history of cultural genocide of its minorities, including the Muslim Ulghurs.


Two Michaels kidnapped by ChinaTwo Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, were kidnapped in December 2018 in reprisal for Canada's arrest of a Huawei executive for an extradition request on an arrest warrant issued by the United States. They were held in a Chinese prison for almost three years until the U.S. abandoned its extradition request. Huawei ExecutiveLately, through its Hong Kong subsidiary, it has issued bounties for the arrests of pro-democracy activists abroad in Britain, the United States and Australia, including Canadian-born Dennis Kwok.


The Trudeau family has always had an oddly cosy relationship with the dictatorships of the world, including Russia, Cuba and China. Pierre Trudeau was a close personal friend with Fidel Castro, who's greatest achievement was subjecting the country and its captive people to perpetual poverty in the name of communist ideology.


Pierre Trudeau made several visits to China including in 1961 when a government-induced famine was underway that killed 30 million people and resulted in widespread cannibalism. "He was enormously sympathetic to the regime and failed to take note of anything involving repression, violence and death around him," wrote Peter Schweizer in his book Red-Handed. He often voiced his admiration of the communist government saying that the country was a "model of central planning".


Michael ChongJustin was quoted at a 2013 Toronto fundraiser in which he picked China when he was asked what nation he most admired. "There's a level of admiration I actually have for China. Their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime." In attendance were people from Taiwan, Tibet and Korea, all of whom suffered at the hands of China's dictatorship, said they were insulted by Trudeau's remarks.


In May 2023 Trudeau expelled one Chinese diplomat after an intelligence report accused him of trying to target the family of Conservative MP Michael Chong, who has been critical of China's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority. That resulted in diplomats in the Chinese consulate in Toronto gathering information to target him and his extended family. The Liberal government did not inform him that he was being targeted by the Chinese, even though the security agencies were aware, and said that this was a symptom of the national security system that isn't working to protect Canadians.


The Conservative foreign affairs critic also testified about his experience before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a bipartisan committee of representatives, senators and administration appointees with a legislative mandate to monitor human rights in the People's Republic. While trying to avoid criticizing Canada's response to Chinese influence in Canadian politics, it became apparent that it was soft on China's meddling, and said that Canada must work more closely with democratic allies like the U.S. in countering Beijing's efforts to interfere in our democratic life. Regarding the boycotting of Chinese goods produced by the use of forced Uyghur labour, he said "I think the United States has done an excellent job on enforcing bans on the importation of goods like tomatoes and cotton", citing the seizure of shipments by U.S. border officials. In Canada we have yet to seize one shipment.


In a 2023 book called "The Mosaic Effect", and sub-titled, "How the Chinese Communist Party Started a Hybrid War in America's backyard", a former RCMP and military intelligence expert Scott McGregor and researcher and filmmaker Ina Mitchell document the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) infiltration of Canada over the past 40 years. Through a series of front-men and a web of organizations supported and funded by the CCP, they have been able to influence the highest levels of the Canadian government, including the country's leading politician, Justin Trudeau.


It also describes how The United States ran a secret probe in the 1990s into national-security threats posed by Chinese overseas operations that drew alarming conclusions about Canada. The book says the project, code-named Operation Dragon Lord, led to an unnerving takeaway: that Beijing's activities in Canada represented a security threat to the United States.