The trickle of information on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference in Canadian affairs has turned into a torrent. Current and former intelligence officials are coming out and reporting a pattern of government indifference to CCP interference in domestic affairs that spans back decades. Governments and political leaders have managed to ignore the problem with impunity so far.
Will that finally change with the latest revelations?
OTTAWA — All eyes will be on New Democrats on Tuesday as they decide whether they will support the Conservatives’ motion to compel the prime minister’s chief of staff to testify on alleged Chinese interference in past elections.
The Conservatives have put forward a motion in the House of Commons which would compel Katie Telford, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff, to testify before a House of Commons committee on the Chinese government’s efforts to interfere in Canadian elections.
The motion, moved by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, would order Telford to appear before the standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics no later than April 14, 2023 and to answer questions for three hours.
It says everything about the Liberal Party’s collusion with Communist China that Ms. Telford must be “forced” to spill her guilty guts.
Canada’s close geographical and cultural proximity to the United States has some strange effects on our politics. One of the oddest is pushing the Liberal Party of Canada to wear the woke, anti-racist clothing of its American counterpart, the Democratic party. Yet at its core, the Liberal party exists to serve the interests of the country’s (uniformly white) Laurentian elite of western Quebec and southern Ontario. The party’s commitment to anti-racism is just an act put on for purely political purposes.
The strong opposition to David Johnston’s appointment as special rapporteur investigating Chinese interference in elections reveals how our times, and our politics, have changed.
In a previous column, I suggested that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre should accept Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s choice of Mr. Johnston on the grounds that the former governor-general was appointed to that post by then-Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, and that he is one of this country’s most trusted, and trustworthy, figures.
Johnston is a suspect “choice” given his own ChiCom links alone.
Xi Jinping is not going to Moscow to make peace.
His meetings with President Putin on Monday and Tuesday and his virtual talks with President Zelensky are clearly intended to look like an effort to end the war in Ukraine. And indeed the
Chinese leader would surely prefer the conflict to be over than to see it continue. Already, in just over a year, it has damaged China’s interests in various ways: by reinvigorating Nato, by undermining Beijing’s efforts to mend diplomatic ties with Europe, by weakening demand in crucial export markets, by galvanising the rearmament of Japan, by prompting the United States to rush weapons to Taiwan.
But Xi has a more urgent priority: his aim is to ensure that Russia does not lose.
It looks like we finally have one political leader serving in higher office who actually wants to know more rather than less about the allegations of the Beijing Communist regime’s interference in our elections.
British Columbia NDP Premier David Eby says he’s “very troubled” by these allegations. He wants a “thorough and independent investigation” and he’s requested CSIS provide him with a “full briefing.”
Canada’s ambassador to the United States says U.S. President Joe Biden may be less critical of Canada failing to meet its defence spending targets than former President Barack Obama was when the latter addressed Parliament.
When Biden makes his first official state visit to Canada this week, discussions around defence and security, Norad modernization, and how to deal with Russia and China are on the agenda.
The last American president to visit Ottawa — and to address Parliament — was Obama in 2016, when in a 50-minute speech he said: “NATO needs more Canada.”
CNN news anchor Erin Burnett admitted that evidence revealing that the Biden family received over a million dollars from accounts linked to Hunter Biden’s Chinese business dealings does not “look good” for the president’s family.
On her CNN program “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Burnett was discussing financial records revealing members of the Biden family payment from a CCP-linked company.
When Burnett asked her guest Ryan Goodman, co-editor-in-chief of “Just Security,” about the revelations, she admitted to him they don’t “look good.”
OTTAWA — The leaked intelligence reports have set off a political firestorm. They describe plans by the government of China and its diplomats in Canada to ensure that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party took power in the last two elections, raising troubling questions about the integrity of Canada’s democracy.
But as two prominent Canadian news organizations have published a series of leaks over the past month, Mr. Trudeau has refused calls to launch a public inquiry into the matter, angering political opponents and leading to accusations that he is covering up foreign attempts to undermine his country’s elections.
According to the Blacklock’s Reporter, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino expects the cabinet’s review of the proposed paid foreign agent registry to take several months.
Senate has a bill for a foreign agent registry sitting there for a year and nothing has been done.
Xi is a busy guy, he just hasn’t had a chance to review the bill.
The New York Times editorial board published a piece last weekend that shows a worrying bias for America’s greatest foe: the Chinese Communist Party.
The piece, titled “Who Benefits From Confrontation With China,” is a masterclass in misdirection and falsehood. If it were not published in America’s “paper of record,” it would be just as at home in China Daily.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appointment of former governor general David Johnston as his “eminent rapporteur” on foreign interference by China in the last two federal elections is a classic “wag the dog” political strategy.
In his new role as special rapporteur investigating alleged foreign interference, David Johnston will likely take a deep dive into the suburban Toronto riding of Don Valley North.
The riding is emerging as a nexus for alleged meddling by China. It’s represented federally by a Liberal and provincially by the Progressive Conservative party — but what raises eyebrows are their connections to a wealthy supermarket mogul with close ties to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto.
B.C. Premier David Eby wants to meet with Canada’s intelligence agency, saying he is disturbed by secret documents describing Beijing’s efforts to interfere in a Vancouver election, as some of the province’s senior political strategists call for urgent measures to address vulnerabilities in the democratic process.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has described efforts by China’s consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, to “groom” someone for the city’s council and, in the 2022 mayoral vote, “get all eligible voters to come out and elect a specific Chinese-Canadian candidate.” The documents do not name any candidate.
