OTTAWA — The Conservatives said all parties agreed Friday on the scope for a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada.
The agreement appeared to break the impasse between the governing Liberals and the Conservatives about how to proceed with negotiations to establish a probe into efforts of foreign governments to interfere in Canada’s elections and governance.
The smart money is on the spooks. They have the public on their side
The Canada of our allies’ imagination is a peaceable land of winter, hockey and exquisite politeness. The winter and the hockey haven’t changed. But peaceable and polite? Not since the civil war broke out.
This civil war doesn’t pit Quebec nationalists against English Canada, but centres instead on China. The two sides are a political elite that yearns for the days when China was an economic opportunity, and a national security community aware of Beijing’s ambition to deindustrialize the West economically and neuter it geostrategically.
OTTAWA – A million-dollar bounty being offered by Hong Kong police for the capture of exiled democratic activists has supporters renewing calls for Canada’s former chief justice Beverley McLachlin to resign from the region’s highest court, saying her continued presence legitimizes China’s persecution of activists.
One of the directors of an organization that recently held a protest in Ottawa previously met with an official of China’s lead agency in charge of foreign influence, the United Front Work Department (UFWD). Key organizers of the protest have rallied some people in local Chinese Canadian communities to oppose the proposed creation of a foreign agent registry in Canada.
The group behind the June 24 protest on Parliament Hill, the Commission of Marking the 100th Anniversary of Chinese Exclusion Act, is a federally incorporated not-for-profit created on May 1.
Immigrants taking the Canadian citizenship oath at ceremonies are receiving maple leaf pins made in China, federal records show.
According to a House “Inquiry of Ministry” document obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Department of Immigration ordered a quarter-million pins from a Chinese vendor last year.
The 250,000 pins were purchased “for distribution at citizenship ceremonies,” wrote the department, in response to Conservative MP John Brassard’s request for the records.
Justin Trudeau is looking for ‘full buy-in’ from opposition parties to launch ‘any next process’
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government would need “full buy-in” by opposition parties to launch “any next process” to look into foreign interference, but political insiders are suggesting Liberals cannot “play politics” as an excuse to escape a public inquiry.
An ad hoc committee of parliamentarians has begun its probe into previously withheld documents related to the firing of two infectious-disease scientists from Canada’s highest-security lab in Winnipeg, according to a report.
“Work is underway and documents are available to the committee members. They work independently,” said Mark Kennedy, communications director for Government House Leader Mark Holland, according to the Globe and Mail on June 29.
A group of demonstrators marched to the Chinese military anthem on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 24 during a protest that was advertised as marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Immigration Act, which restricted virtually all Chinese immigration to Canada.
However, the organizers have used the act and its anniversary to promote opposition to proposed legislation to create a foreign agent registry in Canada, with one calling the bill “Exclusion 2.0,” a reference to the 1923 legislation, which is also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Trudeau says ‘full buy-in’ from opposition needed before launching new foreign interference probe
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government won’t be announcing any next steps on probing foreign interference until the Liberals get “full buy-in” from the opposition parties, to avoid the process devolving as it did under former special rapporteur David Johnston.
“As we put forward proposals to the other parties on how we can move forward to restore Canadians’ confidence in our abilities to fight foreign interference, we will ensure before we launch any next process, that there is full buy-in by the other parties on how it will be done, and who will do it,” Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday.
Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often.
Mark Twain’s warning should be borne in mind by the opposition parties as they continue to negotiate with the government over a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections.
One of the review bodies investigating the federal government’s approach to foreign interference says the government has provided it with only a “limited” number of cabinet confidence documents.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed last month to waive cabinet confidence so that two federal agencies — the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) — can read the confidential documents David Johnston, the government’s former special rapporteur on foreign interference, reviewed as he produced his report on foreign interference.
OTTAWA — David Johnston has filed his final — and confidential — report on foreign interference to the prime minister, ending his controversial term as special rapporteur.
Johnston had announced his plans to resign the role earlier this month, saying the atmosphere around his work had become too partisan.
The former governor general was appointed to the role in March, as the Liberal government faced increasing pressure to tackle allegations that China meddled in the last two federal elections.
Justin Trudeau’s government continues to look like they are hiding something on China’s interference, refusing to answer questions from a targeted MP and from the media on who got the secret memo.
It’s part of a highly disturbing pattern that makes the Liberals look guilty.
Hundreds in Toronto’s Chinese community are being offered money and a free bus ride to Ottawa to join a protest on Parliament Hill “to protect our legal rights and interests.” While the event is advertised as marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, some organizers have talked about the issue as part of a larger movement to oppose measures such as the proposed foreign agent registry act.
According to one of the organizers, about 28 buses will be transporting protesters from the Toronto area to the nation’s capital on Saturday, June 24, in the morning, and organizers are offering each participant a $15 “lunch subsidy” in the form of a Walmart gift card, The Epoch Times has learned.
OTTAWA – A Canadian senator said he wants Chinese Canadians to set up a national foundation that would focus on raising money to fund lawsuits against “messy reporters” and politicians who “try to smear” the community.
A video of Conservative Sen. Victor Oh making the remarks was uploaded to the social media platform WeChat on June 5, showing him addressing a group at what was described as the Montreal Chinese Community United Centre.
