Thirteen years ago, the then newly-appointed director of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service warned Canadians about the growing threat of interference by China.
It almost ended Richard Fadden’s career. It’s also why he would be an excellent choice to head a public inquiry into foreign interference today.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank said it welcomed a investigation by the Canadian government into allegations that the institution faces interference from the Chinese Communist Party.
The review is a “relatively modest and appropriate step,” AIIB Vice President and Corporate Secretary Ludger Schuknecht said Thursday in an interview. “We welcome this review by Canada, because it will mean transparency, and we have nothing to hide.”
And if AIIB now has “nothing to hide,” then will there also be AIIB transparency about the Russian procurement meeting that this man has been quietly organizing with the staunch internal backing of Chinese Communist Party members inside the Bank? 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 @cafreeland https://t.co/FsLV8QIAWO
— Bob Pickard (@BobPickard) June 15, 2023
The top Chinese diplomat based in Montreal was a keynote speaker at a recent event in that city opposing the establishment of a foreign agent registration act. Senators Yuen Pau Woo and Victor Oh, who also oppose a registry, attended the event as well and voiced opposition to such legislation.
Dai Yuming, the Chinese consul general in Montreal, delivered a speech at the event titled “Reflection Forum of the 100th Anniversary of the Enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in Canada,” organized by the Montreal Chinese Community United Centre on May 28.
The foreign interference threats coming from China differ significantly from those from Russia or other countries, says the boss of Canada’s spy agency.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director David Vigneault testified before the Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 13 and answered questions from MPs about the nature of the China threat.
Ottawa launching review of Canada’s membership in China-led development bank
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Ottawa is launching a review of Canada’s membership in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as well as allegations raised by a former bank staffer who accused it of being “dominated by the Communist Party.”
Bob Pickard, the Canadian who was global communications director for the bank, resigned Tuesday from the institution, decrying what he called its “toxic culture” and urging Canada to withdraw from this “People’s Republic of China instrument”.
WHAT A GREAT GRIFT IDEA! LET’S PARTNER WITH A COMMUNST SLAVE STATE!
The Trudeau Liberal Government applied to become a member and here is Bill Morneau being welcomed by the president of the bank. Cry-stia Freeloader knew about and supported this bank for YEARS and just now thinks moving against it will indemnify her or protect her from her… pic.twitter.com/Bmoy4iY0Jt
— Laura Love (@Panopticonomy) June 14, 2023
Canada is not that big a deal on the world stage.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a proud, loyal Canadian and love my country. It is just that we don’t really matter that much on the global scene. Our economy is the 10th largest in the world, which isn’t bad but could be better. When it comes to population we rank 39th. Defence? We come in at 20th out of NATO’s 31 members. Meh.
Since David Johnston resigned last week as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special rapporteur, a lot of outlets have been wondering what comes next on the Chinese-meddling investigation.
But not me. I’ve been wondering what comes next for someone with the brilliant investigative skills of our former governor general.
CSIS director David Vigneault said the spy agency deliberately sent a May, 2021, note warning about China’s targeting of a Conservative MP and his relatives to then-public safety minister Bill Blair’s office and intended for this information to reach the minister because it was considered of high importance.
The testimony from the head of CSIS appeared to be an effort to defend the spy agency as a Commons committee probes why Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong wasn’t warned of the 2021 intelligence collected by CSIS for two years.
A Liberal Cabinet Minister lying! Unheard of.
Now that David Johnston has stepped down, the serious work of putting in place a commission of inquiry can begin.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc embarrassed himself by saying the Liberals were never opposed to a public inquiry. But at this stage, who cares?
The important thing is that Canadians will finally have a chance to know what really happened with Chinese government interference in our elections.
He’s a delusional wee tyrant, far too much the narcissist to ever consider stepping down.
So it looks like there’s going to be a public inquiry into Chinese communist meddling in our elections after all. At least Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc is hinting as much. Who saw that one coming?
Not David Johnston, evidently. He finally stepped down from his untenable position, which I greet with the same grace he exhibited in announcing it. Namely in resigning as depressingly ordinary rapporteur he blamed “the highly partisan atmosphere around my appointment and work,” not the real conflict of interest that made him unsuitable from the word go and the shabby initial report that made his position untenable.
The head of the RCMP says his organization has opened an investigation into allegations China attempted to target and intimidate Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family.
Commissioner Mike Duheme made the comments before the procedure and House affairs committee Tuesday morning. It has been studying an alleged 2021 Beijing plot to amass information on Chong’s family in retaliation for his efforts to recognize the persecution of Uyghurs as genocide.
It was the right decision for David Johnston to resign from whatever his job was, whoever’s decision it was.
Still, amongst the things for which there will have to be a reckoning when this is all over is why he was appointed in the first place. Mr. Johnston himself never seemed to understand what he had walked into or why he should not have walked into it – to the last, in his letter of resignation, he put the opposition down to the “highly partisan atmosphere” – but the Prime Minister and his people did. They appointed him not in spite of his unsuitability, but because of it.
There are no plans to invite Canada to a security pact between Australia, the UK, and the United States focused on defence technology cooperation, says U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
The trilateral security pact, AUKUS, was formed in 2021 and has been seen as a way to counter China’s growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
I suspect Canada is excluded because we are riddled with ChiCom assests.
The old saw about crisis management is that the goal is to figure out where the crisis ends and get there as quickly as possible.
But when Liberal cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc met reporters on the Saturday morning after the resignation of David Johnston to talk about next steps, he was back where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was three months ago, on March 6.
The same political forces that shredded David Johnston — forcing the former governor general’s abrupt resignation on Friday — are being challenged to find a new person to restore Canadians’ faith in their electoral system.
Well, good luck with that.
Basically, Justin Trudeau’s government is borrowing one the cardinal rules of retail to get out of the political mess that has dominated Parliament Hill for months, telling the fractious opposition parties: you broke it, you bought it.
