Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has never been briefed that any candidates in a Canadian election were influenced by financing from the Chinese government.
A Global News report earlier this month cited unnamed sources who claimed Trudeau was briefed last January that China was trying to interfere in Canadian politics, including by funding at least 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election.
My guess is CSIS likely doesn’t trust Trudeau or the Liberal Party.
Following claims that Chinese agents interfered in recent Canadian elections and stole industry secrets from Hydro-Québec, Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos is calling on the Canadian government to take a much harder line against China — a country he describes as “an evil authoritarian regime.”
Housakos has introduced a bill, S-237, that would establish a foreign influence registry in Canada — a system that would compel agents working on behalf of a foreign government to either register their interactions with public officials in Canada or face criminal penalties.
Under this proposed law, any foreign-backed agent who fails to declare any interaction with a “public office holder” — like a cabinet minister, an MP, a senator or a senior government official — could be charged with a crime and face hefty fines and up to two years in jail.
If there was significant interference by China in Canada’s last two federal elections, which seems increasingly likely, the federal agency specifically created by the Trudeau government to inform the public about it said nothing.
That suggests one of two things, both alarming.
Canada is in the global spotlight, again. A reporter at the G20 meeting in Bali captured Chinese leader Xi Jinping threatening Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over leaks of an earlier meeting between the two, in which Trudeau reportedly confronted Xi with intelligence leaks to the media about China’s election interference.
Yes, there was a leak about a leak.
Diversity is killing us.
The smiles at the G20 cannot mask the deep tensions between East and West.
The G20 heads of state met in Bali this week, with geopolitical instability swirling around them and tensions raised between West and East. The missile that landed on Polish soil on Tuesday almost derailed proceedings. For one thing, it led Chinese president Xi Jinping to stand up Rishi Sunak, supposedly because of last-minute ‘movements to schedules’. But at least Joe Biden’s three-hour meeting with Xi passed without incident. And the relief of the delegates and the media was palpable.
China has contested claims it was operating unauthorized “police stations” on US soil, calling the sites volunteer-run, after the FBI director said he was “very concerned” about unauthorized stations that have been linked to Beijing’s influence operations.
Safeguard Defenders, a Europe-based human rights organization, published a report in September revealing the presence of dozens of Chinese police “service stations” in major cities around the world, including New York.
The FBI director, Christopher Wray, told a Senate hearing on Thursday that it was “outrageous” that the Chinese government would attempt to set up a police presence in the United States, saying it “violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes”.
Conservative MPs asked during question period in the House of Commons Friday if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed Elections Canada after he was briefed by intelligence officers in January that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) covertly funded 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election.
“The prime minister had a choice: He could report this illegal activity to Elections Canada so that they could investigate or he could cover it up. What choice did the prime minister make?” asked Conservative MP Michael Cooper on Nov. 18.
Trudeau is continuing his trip to Southeast Asia and wasn’t in the House to respond, nor was Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, but his parliamentary secretary Pam Damoff said the alleged Chinese funding of candidates “never ever compromised” Canada’s election process.
Two women were tied up and left in the street after they reportedly picked up a takeaway meal without wearing masks, in a humiliating abuse of power by officials enforcing China’s strict Covid rules.
A video showed the two visibly distressed women with their hands tied at a checkpoint near the entrance to a residential compound in the southern city of Guangzhou on Thursday.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “dismissive” behaviour towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit is a result of the Liberal government’s failure to treat national security issues seriously, says Conservative Senator Leo Housakos. Other Tory lawmakers are calling for stronger actions to address Beijing’s interference in Canada.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s dressing down of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit was as close to Real Housewives-style table flipping as intergovernmental forums get — at least publicly, anyway.
Trudeau deserved it. Canada didn’t.
Xi Jinping’s threatening rebuke of Justin Trudeau was a rare and surprising move by the Chinese president, and highlighted the disregard he has for the Canadian prime minister, according to some experts and former diplomats.
“He certainly wouldn’t speak like that to the U.S. president. So it does suggest that Mr. Xi has a degree of disdain for the prime minister and does not see Canada as an important partner,” said Charles Burton, senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a former diplomat to China.
Xi called out Justin for being a spineless hypocrite same as Canadians do.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received a verbal spanking from China’s commie dictator Xi Jinping at the recent G20 Summit.
Watch Xi scold Trudeau about for leaking their private conversation to the Canadian press. Check out their body language. Xi looks pissed. Trudeau looks like a cuck.
This has gone viral, what a dolt. I bet Junior set this up with his press thinking he would look like a hero. Xi made him look like a twit, which he is.
Canadian politicians and China experts have offered their observations on Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s confrontation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G-20 summit on Nov. 16, when Xi told Trudeau that he shouldn’t have “leaked” details of their conversation to the media the day before.
A prominent businessman in Toronto’s Chinese community is the subject of two separate investigations involving foreign interference, sources tell Global News, both related to a series of briefings and memos that Canadian security officials allegedly gave to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau beginning in January.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has investigated Wei Chengyi for his alleged role in a covert scheme that facilitated large-fund transfers meant to advance Beijing’s interests in Canada’s 2019 federal election, sources said.
Toe-curling footage has emerged of Chinese President Xi Jinping humiliating Justin Trudeau with a dressing down on the sidelines of the G20 conference.
The two leaders were caught on camera having a heated discussion at the global summit in Bali today, with Xi tearing into the Canadian Prime Minister.
Xi appeared visibly frustrated as he confronted Trudeau about how details of an earlier meeting between them, which was held yesterday, had been leaked to the press by Canadian government sources.
Once again Junior embarrasses Canada.
