“Canada’s China Class”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accepted the advice of his campaign manager in the 2019 election that no action should be taken against Liberal Han Dong despite concerns raised by Canada’s spy service about possible China-directed interference activities, the public inquiry into foreign meddling heard Tuesday.

The Foreign Interference Commission has heard testimony that CSIS provided a classified briefing in Sept. 28, 2019, to Liberal Party officials, who received national-security clearances, about alleged irregularities in the Don Valley North nomination that Mr. Dong won.

No surprise Trudeau works for China.

A top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service briefing prepared for the Prime Minister’s Office in February last year said Beijing had “clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections.”

The classified document, dated Feb. 21, 2023, was drafted in response to media stories, including one in The Globe and Mail, that outlined a sophisticated campaign by China and its proxies to interfere in the 2021 election. The document was made public on Monday, when it was tabled at the Commission of Inquiry into Foreign Interference.

I can’t help but notice that few bother to comment on posts about the Liberal Party’s corrupt relationship with the PRC.

Personally I am resigned to the fact that nothing will change regardless of the commission’s findings which I suspect is the reason for the lack of interest from readers.

Our political class looks after their own.

No one will be charged, no one will go to jail and no one will lose their job.

Leaving Canada is becoming a serious consideration.

A top secret CSIS briefing prepared for the Prime Minister’s Office in February 2023 last year, following leaks to the media about Chinese meddling, said Beijing “clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 general elections.”

The classified document, dated Feb. 21, 2023, was tabled at the Commission of Inquiry into Foreign Interference in response to media stories including one in The Globe and Mail that outlined a sophisticated campaign by People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its proxies to interfere in the 2021 election.

The slowly emerging proportions of the interference by the People’s Republic of China in Canadian elections does not justify concern that illicit interference materially changed the result of the two general elections in 2019 and 2021 in which China is alleged to have intervened on behalf of a number of Liberal and Conservative candidates.

While the foreign interference inquiry headed by Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue appears to be doing credible work in investigating foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, it isn’t addressing the elephant in the room.

New intelligence documents published by the federal foreign interference inquiry raise questions about the conclusions of former Governor General David Johnston’s probe into the issue.

Johnston, whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed a special rapporteur on foreign interference, ruled out calling a public inquiry last May.

Had Johnston’s recommendation been accepted, a trove of national security documents released this week by the Foreign Interference Commission would have never seen the light of day.

Not at all unreasonable to suspect Junior is working for China.

Foreign Interference Commission hears 2019 CSIS assessment that a “politically-connected Canadian” impacted the fed election was “recalled”

After the 2019 federal election CSIS director David Vigneault decided to “recall” a controversial intelligence assessment saying a “politically-connected Canadian” had impacted Canada’s 2019 vote in Liberal MP Han Dong’s Toronto riding, Ottawa’s Foreign Interference Commission heard Thursday.

Explosive documents tabled while Vigneault was examined on his decision said the October 2019 CSIS assessment regarding suspected PRC interference in Dong’s campaign was shared with senior government officials including Trudeau’s then National Security Advisor.

Among this week’s many disturbing revelations about the Trudeau government’s official indifference to Beijing’s interference operations during the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, what might come as the biggest shock to most Canadians is just how easy it was for Chinese high school students to be bused in to vote for Beijing’s favoured candidate in a Liberal party nomination race in the Ontario riding of Don Valley North.

Canada’s electronic spying agency obtained “significant” intelligence related to the “distribution of funds” shortly after the 2021 elections, the interference inquiry heard April 4.

The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is responsible for collecting signals intelligence (SIGINT) and generally cannot collect intelligence on Canadians or in Canada. Information presented to the inquiry suggests it was able to intercept or hack into foreign communications to retrieve information about elections interference.

“With CSIS, everything’s a big secret,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford once said about a 2022 briefing his government received about Chinese interference.

It seemed funny at the time, because of course Canada’s spy agency is secretive. But when you hear the way federal officials failed to pass on useful information of foreign election interference to political parties during the 2021 election campaign, you can see the problem.

Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole believes foreign interference may have led to his removal as party leader, according to documents tabled before the foreign interference inquiry.

In a document containing notes from an interview between O’Toole and lawyers acting for the Foreign Interference Commission earlier this year, O’Toole is quoted as saying he was suspicious about the motives of the person behind the petition that called for a leadership review following the 2021 election.

In July 2019, world-renowned biological researchers Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng were quietly walked out of the Canadian government’s National Microbiology Lab (NML). The original allegation against them was that Qiu had authorised a shipment to China of some of the deadliest viruses on the planet, including Ebola and Nipah.

Qiu and Cheng, a married couple, subsequently lost their security clearances and were then fired by the NML in January 2021. At the time, both were subject to investigations by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service (CSIS). The NML said both had lost their positions for ‘breaches of policy’; it did not say what those breaches or policies had been.

Then the story seemed to go away—until now.