New report adds to years of warnings about Beijing’s meddling in Canadian politics: activists, experts – Montreal Gazette
Despite the warnings from Canada’s intelligence agency, federal government has not taken action against China
A Canadian Security Intelligence Service boss calls out an unnamed foreign government and its influence over at least two provincial cabinet ministers, the meddling nation eventually identified as China.
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The revelation sparks debate and much criticism for the CSIS director. The one minister publicly identified is allowed to stay in his job, earning a vote of confidence from the Ontario premier. No other action is taken.
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The events unfolded a decade ago but sound remarkably familiar today.
A similar uproar was triggered this week by another media report suggesting CSIS recently alerted the Prime Minister’s Office to an extensive campaign of interference by Beijing in Canadian politics.
Citing unnamed sources, Global News said CSIS alleged that Chinese diplomats had supported 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election, funnelling $250,000 in funding at one point through a sympathetic member of the Ontario legislature.
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Community activists and security experts said Tuesday the charges have the ring of truth, echo repeated warnings from the intelligence community — and yet seem unlikely to generate any concrete action in response.
“Most people in the Chinese community are thinking that Chinese influence is so huge, they can say nothing to oppose it,” said Victor Ho, former editor of Sing Tao newspaper’s Vancouver edition. “They cannot say ‘No’ to the Chinese influence, because our government is so weak, so inactive on that foreign influence.”
“I am very pessimistic. So far I have no hope.”
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Dennis Molinaro, a former national security analyst and now a legal studies professor at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, said he is barred from divulging what he learned while working in intelligence on the China file.
But from those warnings issued in 2010 by Richard Fadden, then CSIS director, to more recent alerts, it is in some ways nothing new, he said.
“CSIS has raised it repeatedly,” said Molinaro. “We have this situation where … CSIS is warning that these activities are going on and we have no way of stopping them.”
What’s needed is not just talk and hand wringing but legislation to counter foreign interference, he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did respond relatively strongly to the Global report this week, condemning China and others.
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“Unfortunately, we’re seeing countries, state actors from around the world, whether it’s China or others, are continuing to play aggressive games with our institutions, with our democracies.”
But there’s little sign the government plans, for instance, to institute a foreign-agent registry like those in the U.S. and Australia, or anti-foreign influence legislation like Australia’s.
And China reacted with predictable disapproval, a government spokesman urging Trudeau to stop making comments that hurt relations between the countries.
While the extent of Beijing’s meddling in Canadian politics can be debated, the fact it happens seems undeniable. After coming to power, for instance, Chinese President Xi Jinping greatly expanded the United Front Work Department, the Chinese Communist Party branch charged with covertly extending Beijing’s reach overseas.
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While it uses proxy groups to promote its views on controversial issues like Tibet, the Uyghurs and Taiwan, the organization also eyes the political process itself. A leaked handbook for United Front cadres even touted the fact that the number of politicians of Chinese descent elected in Toronto had almost doubled between 2003 and 2006, and urged officials to “work with” them.
Certain Canadian politicians — like a current Ontario provincial politician who attended a Beijing-run workshop for diaspora leaders in China nine years ago — are known for their close ties to Beijing.
Kenny Chiu, a Conservative MP who lost his seat in last year’s election, championed a foreign agent registry bill while in Parliament. He and others believe it prompted a flood of disinformation and smears on Chinese-language social media that spelled his downfall.
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Karen Woods, a prominent figure in the Toronto area’s Chinese-Canadian community, has seen both sides. She once worked for a lobby group that represented the city’s China consulate, but says her views on the country have changed. As co-founder of the Canadian Chinese Political Affairs Committee, she issued a handbook for Chinese voters in Ontario’s recent municipal elections, outlining among other facts the candidates’ past ties to Beijing.
She believes the recent allegations are true, but questions whether the money and other support for certain candidates had much impact.
“I wouldn’t think China is very successful in influencing Canadian politics,” said Woods Tuesday. “I mean, 92 per cent of Canadians now have a very negative view of China.”
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Still, she believes Canada should be more vigilant, a view shared by other critics of China’s behaviour.
Molinaro said implementing a foreign agent registry is the minimum step Canada should take, but also argued laws need to change to allow CSIS to share its findings with more than just the government, and to make it a crime to work covertly for another nation.
He also favours holding a Royal Commission to flush out all the facts about foreign interference in Canadian politics.
That’s something recommended as well by Ho, who is a friend of former MP Chiu. He favours anti-interference legislation, too, and says top Chinese diplomats should be expelled if the Global charges are proven true.
Not only does the interference threaten Canada’s sovereignty, but it could undermine its relationship with other members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand, said Molinaro.
“They are going to start looking at us as a security risk,” he said. “And for us, that is a real problem.”