“China – Communist Slave State”

Last February, while Justin Trudeau pushed back against media investigations into Chinese election interference, citing anti-Asian racism, a brief for Trudeau’s Cabinet confirmed China’s clandestine influence in the 2019 and 2021 federal contests, and that current Members of Parliament were targeted in hostile state activity, and China leverages a “vast range of tools” to undermine “Canadian values, electoral processes, and Charter Rights.”

This definitive confirmation of Ottawa’s awareness of China’s deep attacks in recent Canadian elections comes from a newly released “Canadian Eyes Only” CSIS document called “Briefing to the Minister of Democratic Institutions on Foreign Interference.”

A series of national security leaks in the press led to the current public inquiry on foreign interference, but the leak of one CSIS report indicating Beijing was targeting MPs—a report ignored by the government—had a major role in forcing Ottawa to hold an inquiry.

That Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) assessment has now been partially disclosed by the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference.

Canada knows China tried to influence the last two federal elections, according to a top secret briefing report obtained by Global News that said the government “must do more” to fight foreign interference.

“We know that the PRC sought to clandestinely and deceptively influence the 2019 and 2021 federal elections,” according to the briefing released by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

An organization representing Uyghur Canadians is withdrawing from the public inquiry into foreign interference, a development that threatens to undermine Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s ability to hear testimony from all vulnerable diaspora communities facing persecution from China.

The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project wrote to Justice Hogue Wednesday to serve notice it is formally withdrawing because she granted party standing to former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan, now deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., and independent MP Han Dong. This type of standing means they can cross-examine witnesses and gain access to all evidence collected, including that presented to the inquiry outside of hearings.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017 ignored multiple warnings and committed Canada to membership in Xi Jinping’s pet project—an infrastructure bank that finances Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and furthers China’s bid to become an imperial power.

The bank, known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), pretends to be benign—just another multilateral development bank, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank—but its corporate structure belies such “business-as-usual” claims.

The allegations kept mounting in Canada: Election-meddling by China, an Indian-backed assassination on home soil, and a campaign to harass Iranian dissidents. Is Canada especially vulnerable to foreign interference?

Michael Chong said it did not take long for him to become a target of Beijing.

In testimony before US lawmakers on Capitol Hill last year, the Canadian Conservative politician described how an alleged intimidation campaign against him was born after he spoke out against China’s human rights record in parliament.

Before Canada’s recent designation of 85 Chinese academic institutions as potential threats to national security, several Canadian universities had engaged in extensive interactions with some of those institutions.

The list of Named Research Organizations released Jan. 16 is part of Ottawa’s Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern, introduced to bolster Canadian universities’ research security.