It was a peculiar exchange that betrayed quite a bit about the Trudeau government’s entanglements with Beijing’s various friends and interlocutors in Canada, and it was doubly awkward, coming at a time when the Liberal government is trying to give the appearance of acting on what it claims to stand for in the matter of refugees, the global traffic in slave goods, and Xi Jinping’s sadistic throttling of democratic life in Hong Kong.
National security officials drafted a warning for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his office more than a year before the 2019 federal election, alleging that Chinese agents were “assisting Canadian candidates running for political offices,” according to a Privy Council Office document reviewed by Global News.
Written by the office of National Security and Intelligence Advisor, Daniel Jean, at the request of Trudeau’s chief of staff — and arguably his most trusted aide — Katie Telford, the document called “Memorandum for the Prime Minister” was also provided to Privy Council Office clerk Michael Wernick, records show.
If the federal government can push to remove one foreign state broadcaster, it can do so for others, argues the Conservative foreign affairs critic.
At the Special Committee on Canada-China relations in Ottawa Monday evening, Michael Chong grilled Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on why state-owned Chinese broadcasters are still available in Canada, despite being removed in other countries over concerns about disinformation and human-rights abuses.
“Authoritarian state-controlled broadcasters, which spread propaganda and disinformation, should not be on the list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution,” Chong told the Star afterward. “That is our call for action.”
Remember when the CBC attacked the anti-ChiCom newspaper “Epoch Times” for not adhering to Strongman Xi’s party line on the Wuhan Flu?
The CBC were Xi’s finger puppet basing their whole story on a couple of cranks & Canada Post’s union, thankfully the public furor forced CBC’s cadres to back down.
Here’s the original CBC attack on Epoch Times, Beijing was well pleased that day.
Any attempts to unmask #China spies must be "culturally sensitive," @MarcoMendicino tells MPs. https://t.co/rFQkGNkZjY #cdnpoli @SenatorHousakos #S237 #China @Safety_Canada @JeanYip3 @pfragiskatos pic.twitter.com/PIeUF42Rva
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) February 7, 2023
Could this spy balloon be enough for the Trudeau government to truly be alarmed over the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party?
Two executives of a Toronto Chinese business association whose address is on a list of overseas Chinese “police service stations” attended events last year in China with local police and other government officials to discuss providing policing services to overseas Chinese, according to reports and photos posted by multiple local state-run media outlets and on various WeChat channels in China.
A senior RCMP official says the force is in the midst of examining equipment it obtained from a company linked to China’s government to search for any points of vulnerability.
The national police force suspended its contract with Sinclair Technologies for radio frequency (RF) equipment last year following reporting by Radio-Canada that revealed Sinclair’s parent company, Norsat International, has been owned by Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera since 2017.
The Chinese government owns around 10 per cent of Hytera through an investment fund, Radio-Canada reported.
Canadian universities have for years collaborated with a top Chinese army scientific institution on hundreds of advanced-technology research projects, generating knowledge that can help drive China’s defence sector in cutting-edge, high-tech industries.
Researchers at 50 Canadian universities, including the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia and McGill University, have conducted and published joint scientific papers from 2005 to 2022 with scientists connected to China’s military, according to research provided to The Globe and Mail by U.S. strategic intelligence company Strider Technologies Inc.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is slated to testify before a parliamentary committee on Monday about federal contracts awarded to a firm that has ties to the Chinese government — a revelation that came amid increased concerns about foreign interference last month.
Last month, reports emerged that Ontario-based Sinclair Technologies had been given 24 contracts since 2009, including work for the Department of Defence, the RCMP and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
“A favorite PRC tactic is to use the terms China, Chinese and Chinese Communist Party interchangeably. PRC has mixed them all up so often and for so long that a criticism of the CCP is now interpreted by China as a criticism of the people, and thus a racist act.”
A UBC professor recently told me that when his family members flew back to work in China after the Christmas holidays they had to get a PCR test to prove to border officials that they did not have COVID.
He was taken aback, because he follows multiple Canadian and international media sources. The reports he had seen had tended to sympathize with Chinese officials who claimed Western nations that instituted test requirements for incoming Chinese citizens were “discriminating”.
The Chinese Consulate in Vancouver asked the province in 2014 to give to a Vancouver-based NGO the driver’s licences of Chinese nationals who had surrendered them in exchange for B.C. licences, according to internal government documents.
The revelation comes amid heightened scrutiny of China’s overseas operations after reports emerged that the communist regime is operating unofficial police service stations abroad.
B.C. group under RCMP scrutiny for Beijing ties has charitable status in Canada
RICHMOND, B.C.—Across the street from a strip mall lined with restaurants and hair salons, the shield of the Wenzhou Friendship Society hangs above a gated entry.
What has gone on behind those doors is part of a Canadian national security investigation into the aggressive foreign interference tactics of the Chinese government.
… Cooper and other experts (including U.S. national security officials interviewed by ProPublica) say Canadian political leaders have ignored or minimized the extent of the threat from China. Cooper has received criticism from pro-Beijing figures in the Chinese-Canadian community and is fighting two defamation lawsuits from subjects of his coverage. But his reporting has drawn praise from national security officials, dissidents of Chinese origin and academics in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. It helped spur a governmental inquiry known as the Cullen Commission, which recently concluded that organized crime had laundered billions of dollars in the province of British Columbia. And the latest revelations of Chinese interference are having a potentially dramatic impact on the political debate in Canada.
COVID-19 travel restrictions for China arrivals ‘not effective,’ ‘little bit absurd’: infectious disease experts
Testing requirements implemented on travellers arriving from China due to the country’s surge in COVID-19 cases are “ineffective” and “a little bit absurd,” according to two infectious disease experts.
Following the easing of COVID-19 polices in China, which was quickly followed by a spike in cases, the U.S., Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy announced testing requirements for all travellers entering from China in the past week.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said it was monitoring the situation on Thursday.
As critics push Trudeau on China interference, Liberal MP says he has become ‘target’
OTTAWA – Politicians including a Liberal MP and a senator say they fear allegations of Chinese interference in the 2019 federal election will lead to anti-Asian racism.
But opposition critics, including some who say they have borne the brunt of such racism themselves, are accusing them of deflecting legitimate questions that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must answer.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Liberal MP Han Dong suggested that claims of Beijing’s interference have been light on detail.
