Canada’s domestic spy agency on Monday concluded that China interfered in the past two elections, an official probe heard, the firmest evidence so far of suspected Chinese meddling in Canadian politics.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party won both the elections, held in 2019 and 2021. Under pressure from opposition lawmakers unhappy about media reports on China’s possible role, Trudeau set up a commission into foreign interference.
The commission was shown a slide on Monday containing an extract of a briefing in February last year from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
Photo: Reuters
“We know that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 elections,” it said. “In both cases, these FI [foreign interference] activities were pragmatic in nature and focused primarily on supporting those viewed to be either ‘pro-PRC’ or ‘neutral’ on issues of interest to the PRC government.”
The existence of the assessment had previously been reported by Global News. China denies it interferes in Canadian politics.
Erin O’Toole, who led the Conservatives during the 2021 campaign, estimated Chinese interference cost his party up to nine seats, but added that it had not changed the course of the election.
“State actors are able to conduct foreign interference successfully in Canada because there are few legal or political consequences. FI is therefore low-risk and high-reward,” the CSIS assessment said.
Intelligence analysts and the Conservatives say Trudeau’s government has not done enough to combat Chinese interference. Trudeau is due to testify to the commission today.
The Conservatives, who generally take a harder line on China than the Liberals, campaigned in 2021 on a platform that condemned Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur minority and vowed to ban Chinese mobile giant Huawei from the 5G network.
A lawmaker for the minority left-leaning New Democrats told the inquiry that once she started criticizing Beijing’s Hong Kong policy, invitations to events held by the politically influential ethnic Chinese community started to dry up.
According to the official 2021 census, Canada is home to about 1.7 million people of Chinese descent, just under 5 percent of the total population.
The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the CSIS statement.
Canada last year said that a Conservative lawmaker with family in Hong Kong had been targeted in an online disinformation operation and it kicked out a senior Chinese diplomat.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS