I spent more than 30 years with Canada’s two intelligence services, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). I worked in collection, cryptanalysis, translation, analysis and distribution over those years at various times. I know how intelligence is produced and how it is marketed, and a bit on how it can help decision-makers be better informed. In short, I know that intelligence has a purpose and makes a difference.
Appearing in Winnipeg a day after David Johnston released his first report on foreign interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed the word “serious.”
“I would simply ask Canadians, and indeed opposition leaders, to actually look at the substance of this very serious issue and take it with the seriousness it deserves,” he told reporters.
Trudeau’s appeal to seriousness is in keeping with his current line of attack against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — the Liberal argument being that these are serious times that require serious leadership and ideas, and Poilievre offers neither.
No need for a debate. Trudeau and the LPC are ChiCom Assets end of story.
Western democracy is under attack from authoritarian states like China and Russia, and Canada must do more to defend our freedoms
Chinese election interference is a hot topic in Canada. Yet, while it is indeed a matter of enormous importance, its real significance can only be understood in the context of the new Cold War against the West.
This conflict is one in which China and Russia have long been engaged, while here at home our bien-pensant elites have continuously warned against us adopting a supposedly outdated “Cold War mentality.” The only ones who are out of date, however, are those whose understanding of recent history ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the “end of history,” in which the values of liberal democracy and the West reign undisputed forever and ever.
Canada’s spy agency has informed former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole that he was targeted by Beijing during his time as party chief and remains a target because of his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.
A source close to Mr. O’Toole said the Conservative MP was briefed Friday by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and he is still considering how best to reveal details to the public in a manner that balances Canadians’ right to know with national-security concerns about classified information.
China’s political interference in Canada is pervasive, and likely goes well beyond what has already come to light, former prime minister Stephen Harper is warning, calling for an end to what he calls “naive globalism.”
The Chinese government has sought to influence elections in Canada, channel money to curry political favour and seek vulnerabilities in politicians who have family living in China, according to secret intelligence documents reported by The Globe and Mail in recent months.
What else could be expected? Canada is a balkanized state of 5th Columns thanks to Multiculturalism which makes loyalty a one way street.
And …
Trudeau’s China Class Buddy says “My work to protect Canada’s democracy from foreign interference is not done”
More like his work is protecting Canada’s China Class antics.
Following the preliminary report by David Johnston, the special rapporteur on the controversy over foreign interference in Canadian elections, it is clear that the federal government’s response has been an infelicitous combination of amateurism and flimflam. As I wrote in this space on April 22, Johnston’s title of “special rapporteur” is a pretentious and misleading misnomer, the position is redundant and the prime minister’s motives in creating it and filling it as he has are suspect. And if such a role had to be confected, David Johnson is not the right person for it. Don Martin, the genial, perceptive and venerable CTV News contributor, may have gone slightly overboard when he said that Johnston’s “reputation is but a smouldering ruin.” But he is probably right that “the final chapter of (Johnston’s) report will be ripe for immediate shredding upon publication in many minds outside the inner Liberal circle … Johnston should step aside from this thankless task immediately.”
Since he was first named the federal government’s special rapporteur on foreign election interference, David Johnston has been accused of being unfit for the job because of his connections to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The leaders of the Conservative and Bloc Québécois parties have both said Trudeau and Johnston are self-declared friends, that their longstanding ties are too close to allow Johnston to judge the prime minister’s actions.
“… It has been painful to watch Mr. Johnston, a heretofore model Canadian with an unimpeachable record, twist himself in knots trying to dissociate himself from Justin Trudeau, as if their previous encounters were mere coincidences that have no bearing on his personal feelings for the man. It is even worse to see him drag a former Supreme Court justice (who is also his friend) into the mix to try back him up.”
Johnston is protecting his own interests and that of his China educated daughters and fellow grifters. He is no great man of Canada.
Slightly more than half of Canadians believe that Special Rapporteur David Johnston should have called for a public inquiry into foreign election interference, according to a new Angus Reid poll on May 26.
The national public opinion survey found that 52 percent of respondents said an inquiry should have been called, while 32 percent thought it was unnecessary, and 16 percent were unsure.
Leaders of Canadian activist and religious groups targeted by Beijing are calling for a public inquiry into foreign interference, saying it isn’t enough for former governor-general David Johnston to hold hearings to listen to their concerns about China’s efforts to silence their criticism.
Groups representing human rights activists, Muslim Uyghurs, Hong Kong pro-democracy dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners and supporters of independence for Tibet told The Globe and Mail they’ve been sounding the alarm for years about Beijing’s harassment and intimidation tactics.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will “use all our tools” to push for an independent public inquiry into China’s election meddling. He should reach for the one closest at hand: scrapping his parliamentary alliance with the Liberals, as a clear warning to the government that it cannot continue to ignore the will of Parliament.
Not gonna happen. He’s on the take like Justin.
The story the two men are telling now is vastly different from happier times.
Were Justin Trudeau and David Johnston telling the truth about their friendship this week or were they telling the truth in 2010, 2016 or 2017?
The decision not to call a public inquiry was wrong, is wrong, and will be wrong forever
There have been so many Liberal scandals that the public’s supply of justified outrage has been long exhausted. David Johnston should never have been given the (dubious) authority to make the determination he has made. Only in a spavined Parliament — robbed of its central power of the confidence vote by the cynical and nefarious deal between Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau — could the travesty of the past few days been possible.
The Singh-Trudeau pact is itself anti-democratic.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is asking the prime minister to allow more members of his party to be briefed on foreign interference attempts, after the leaders of the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois declined to obtain the required security clearance.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, Singh said he wants those two spots given to members of his team who would accompany him in the briefings.
Singh also asked Trudeau for a briefing on how much he can and cannot say after reviewing the intelligence.
Garbage. Singh has one job, crash Trudeau’s government.
State-sponsored hackers from China have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, cybersecurity officials from around the world, including Canada, warned Wednesday in a co-ordinated effort to root out the perpetrators.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security was just one of several international agencies, all of them part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, that took part in amplifying the alert issued by the U.S. National Security Agency.
I doubt they need to look hard Canada, Junior’s handlers have likely handed it all over.
