“Canada’s China Class”

David Johnston was appointed special rapporteur by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in March to look into allegations of Chinese interference in Canada’s election process. The former governor general has apparently met with Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet to discuss his role and mandate.

No such meeting will be taking place with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, however.

Special rapporteur David Johnston is expected to release his decision next Tuesday on whether the federal Liberals should hold a public inquiry on foreign interference.

The recommendation is anticipated to be included in an initial report about how the government should proceed with allegations that Canada’s last two federal elections were subject to meddling by other countries.

OTTAWA – The federal government gave up to $200,000 in funding since 2020 to a Quebec charity the RCMP suspects may be hosting a secret Chinese “police station.”

Experts on Chinese foreign interference fear that funding may have helped pro-Beijing actors grow the Chinese Communist Party’s network in Canada, while “legitimizing” the organization police suspect may be supporting efforts to intimidate or silence critics of China’s ruling regime.

OTTAWA – A senior Conservative campaign official said the government’s system for sharing foreign interference information left him with the impression there were no major issues during the campaign.

Walied Soliman, who was co-chair of the Conservatives 2021 campaign, was also one of the party’s representatives to a special task force of Canada’s intelligence agencies.

Will the public finally be provided some details behind the mysterious firing of Chinese-Canadian scientists who were working at the country’s top biosafety lab?

The Liberal government announced on May 17 that an ad-hoc committee of selected MPs will be able to review documents pertaining to the matter, and a panel of arbiters composed of three former justices will decide what can be released to the public.

Up to now, the government has resisted revealing details about the scientists Qiu Xiangguo and Cheng Keding, who were escorted out of Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Lab (NML) in 2019 amid a police probe and then fired in January 2021.

A panel of members of Parliament and judges are going to review documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada’s highest-security laboratory.

On Wednesday, House of Commons leader Mark Holland revealed the names of MPs and judges who will serve as arbiters on an ad hoc committee tasked to examine both redacted and unredacted documents pertaining to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

Opposition MPs are asking why the Chinese diplomat recently expelled for being involved in threatening an MP’s family wasn’t removed sooner after it emerged that Canada’s intelligence agency knew for several years that he was spying on Falun Gong adherents and Uyghurs in Canada.

As of the time of this writing, there are 177 Chinese diplomats in Canada, including their representatives to the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal. This is second only to the United States, Canada’s closest ally and neighbour to the south, with 291 diplomats. The country with the third-highest number of diplomats in Canada is Japan, with 80 diplomats.

OTTAWA – More than two years after controversy first erupted around the firing of two scientists from Canada’s national microbiology lab, the federal government has finally come to an agreement with all opposition parties on a way forward to view the related secret documents.

Mark Holland, the government’s House leader, announced on Wednesday that three former judges would determine which documents related to the firing of Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng in January 2021 could be disclosed without compromising national security.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has declined to meet with the government’s special rapporteur on foreign interference, citing an inability to find a mutually convenient time, a spokesperson for Poilievre said Wednesday.

Poilievre has mocked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to appoint former governor general David Johnston to look into the matter of foreign interference, calling it nothing more than a delay tactic to avoid calling a public inquiry and describing Johnston as Trudeau’s “neighbour, family friend and ski buddy.”