Canada’s Corrupt Political Class

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.

An unredacted 2020 national security document alleges that Beijing used an extensive network of community groups to conceal the flow of funds between Chinese officials and Canadian members of an election interference network, all in an effort to advance its own political agenda in the 2019 federal contest.

I’m getting awfully sick of all the diversity Justin has unleashed upon us.

For the past five and a half years, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been using communications equipment and technology from the controversial Chinese firm Hytera Communications — a company the United States government has blacklisted as a national security threat.

In response to CBC’s questions about CBSA’s use of Hytera equipment and technology, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said he’s asked all departments across his portfolio to review any procurement contracts linked to Hytera or its subsidiaries in the wake of a controversy over a similar RCMP contract with one of Hytera’s subsidiaries.

“I have instructed my department to do a portfolio-wide scan and review of any other potential similar contracts which may have been awarded, so that we can take whatever steps are necessary to mitigate any against any risks that may exist,” Mendicino said Monday.

Has anyone looked into the possibility of connections between these suppliers and the Liberal Party? That should include individual and corporate donations.

Last week, Ottawa was united in shock over revelations that the RCMP entrusted its critical radio communications systems to Sinclair Technologies, a subsidiary of China’s Hytera Communications Corp. A Chinese state-backed firm, Hytera’s record includes everything from lying to U.S. regulators about its Chinese Communist Party ties to criminal corporate espionage charges. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other party leaders all agreed: The decision was baffling.

But nobody should be surprised. This is not the first time that Canada has found itself with unwanted Chinese surveillance technology. Without a major status quo shift, it won’t be the last.

It’s of course good news that the federal Liberal government has put the brakes on a contract that a firm partially owned by the Chinese government had scored to work on sensitive RCMP technology. But we also need to ask what mindset allowed it to happen in the first place.

Last year, Sinclair Technologies won a contract to provide radio frequency equipment for Canada’s federal police service. Sinclair’s parent company is Norsat International, which is in turn owned by Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera.

RCMP foreign interference investigators visit B.C. friendship society

RCMP national security officers investigating China’s foreign interference activities in Canada were at the headquarters of a Richmond, B.C. non-profit group on Saturday.

The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team conducted interviews at the Wenzhou Friendship Society and in the surrounding neighbourhood.