A handful of candidates in Canada’s 2019 federal election “appeared willing” to go along with foreign interference schemes, a federal public inquiry has found.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s preliminary report, released Friday, concluded that while hostile states attempted to covertly influence the 2019 and 2021 general elections, those efforts did not change which party took power.
Foreign interference in 2019 and 2021 undermined the right of Canadian voters to have an electoral system “free from coercion or covert influence” and may have affected results in a small number of ridings, a public inquiry has concluded in the first of two reports.
While foreign meddling did not alter the overall outcome of those elections, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, a justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal, issued a call to action Friday for the government to vigorously enact measures to tackle this “malign” threat to Canadian democracy.
What will it take for the federal government to deal seriously with Chinese technology theft?
I imagine everyone has heard the phrase “shooting the messenger.” This refers to a tactic where a person who receives bad news, or information that is unwelcome, decides to take his frustration and anger out on the individual who brought it to his attention in the first place. In other words, rather that deal with the consequences of the data and figure out mitigating strategies, just harangue the bearer of bad news. Not a great strategy in all honesty, but one that is used all too frequently.
Canada’s top spy says China’s concerted efforts to steal cutting-edge Canadian technology is mind-boggling, and is designed to build the People’s Liberation Army as a formidable force against Western interests.
David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told MPs on the Canada-China committee Monday that Chinese hacking and other espionage activities have become a serious threat since Xi Jinping became president in 2012.
A group of Canadian MPs and senators who belong to an international parliamentary alliance critical of the Chinese government say the FBI recently informed their organization that many in their ranks were targeted by hackers linked to Beijing.
They say the Canadian government never told them of this People’s Republic of China (PRC) cyberattack despite the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation passed on the information to foreign capitals in 2022.
Further evidence that Trudeau’s government is working for the ChiComs.
A Quebec professor is a participant of a Chinese talent recruitment program deemed by Canada’s intelligence service as a “serious threat” to Canadian research and intellectual property.
Changhui Peng, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) since 2003, joined China’s Thousand Talents Plan in 2010. His participation in the Chinese talents recruitment plan was highlighted on his online profile at the Northwest A&F University, a school in China’s Shaanxi Province, which specializes in agriculture and forestry.
Who will fall on his sword after the public inquiry into election interference?
Probably everyone has heard of the Japanese samurai practice of “harakiri,” also called seppuku, or “falling on one’s sword.” This action, which apparently dates back to Roman times, refers to a ritual suicide by a soldier for something done wrong. The phrase is now used to describe anyone, most notably a high-level government official, who resigns after having taken responsibility for a mistake.
No one.
Chinese candidates applying for a Canadian taxpayer-funded exchange program need to declare allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership and the Party’s “socialist system,” The Epoch Times has learned.
MARKHAM, Ont.—The Toronto-area private school whose name came up prominently during the foreign interference inquiry for busing international students to the Liberal nomination vote of MP Han Dong in 2019 was invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with the prime minister two years later.
The invitation was issued even as the prime minister and Liberal party organizers had been made aware of “irregularities” at the nomination vote by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 2019. The cited issues included international students being told to support Mr. Dong under “veiled threats” by the Chinese consulate.
After learning that samples of deadly Ebola and Nipah viruses had been sent from Canada’s top-security lab in Winnipeg to China, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said his reaction was similar to that of an MP who expressed incredulity upon learning of the move.
“I’m really concerned about the March 2019 incident where [Winnipeg lab scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng] were implicated in a shipment of live Ebola in Hanipah [Nipah] viruses on a commercial Air Canada flight. How the hell did that happen?” NDP MP Charlie Angus asked during a House of Commons Canada-China committee meeting on April 15.
The foreign interference inquiry concluded its core public hearings phase on April 12 and a clearer picture has emerged of the threat Canada faces and what the government is doing about it.
The Liberal government had initially resisted holding the inquiry but eventually folded amid political pressure following a steady stream of intelligence leaks in the media about interference from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
There is much to take away from all the recent analysis and counter-analysis of foreign interference in Canada’s elections — and none of it is good.
In summary, our government minimized the threat to our electoral process, admitting that while there “may” have been “some minor” efforts to sway voter intention, when all was said and done the results were not affected. (I am waiting for someone to explain how this conclusion was drawn: does the government know the reasons individual Canadians voted and the reasons for their choice of party/candidate?)
If it benefits the LPC then Justin approves.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser sent him a briefing in 2017, warning about unwarranted investigations by Chinese police in Canada, according to a declassified document.
The warning came at a time when Ottawa was pursuing closer relations with the communist regime, including a potential free trade agreement. A year earlier, as part of preliminary talks toward a free trade agreement, Canada had also agreed to negotiate a possible extradition treaty with Beijing.
Earlier this week in Ottawa, I sat in the beautiful Bambrick Room of the Library and Archives Canada building and witnessed the Prime Minister of Canada along with his key ministers give sworn evidence to the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions (PIFI).
When Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected in 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rushed to the nearest microphone to express his worry that foreign actors might disrupt his nation’s future elections.
“We have been very much focused over the past years on strengthening our democratic institutions,” Trudeau said. “We need to make sure that they are kept up to date in holding off foreign meddling and interference.”
