espionage
Canadian election officials grilled over lack of focus on China, prosecution of Rebel News
From LifeSiteNews
When it comes to the CCP, many Canadians, especially pro-freedom Chinese Canadians, are concerned considering Trudeau’s past praise for China’s “basic dictatorship” and his labeling of the authoritarian nation as his favorite country other than his own.
Monitors for Canada’s federal elections admitted that despite getting hundreds of complaints claiming that agents of Communist China were interfering in the last two federal elections, it spent vast resources in a four-year chase against Rebel News for planting lawn signs promoting a book critical of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2019 election.
The admission was made earlier this week by Elections Commissioner Caroline Simard during the public inquiry being held to investigate alleged meddling in Canada’s two most recent federal elections by agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), formally titled the Foreign Interference Commission.
Mylène Gigou, who serves as senior director of enforcement in the Office of the Elections Commissioner, testified that “Canada Elections Act is extremely, extremely complex,” adding that they all “work in a small team where we work very closely with legal counsel.”
Nando de Luca, counsel for the Conservative Party, asked if it would be fair to say, “For investigations of breaches of the Elections Act by domestic actors, the Office has allocated far greater resources and spent far more time in its enforcement activities than it has in respect of alleged breaches of the Act by foreign operators?”
“It is difficult to answer such questions,” replied Simard.
In June 2019, the federal government amended Canada’s Elections Act. The rules require that third parties, including non-profit groups, register with Elections Canada if they spend more than $500 on any kind of “political advertising.” This includes any spending that boosts positions taken during election campaigns regarding issues of public policy. The new Elections Act also sets spending limits on third-party election advertising.
During the fall 2019 Canadian federal election, Rebel News head Ezra Levant Levant was promoting his book, The Libranos: What the media won’t tell you about Justin Trudeau’s corruption, via posters, lawn signs, billboards, and other methods. While the Elections Act permits book promotions, the Commissioner ruled that the lawn signs were not a typical promotion and because Levant was not “registered” as a campaign actor, his action was a violation of the rules.
As a result, Levant was fined $3,000 by the Commissioner, a decision which was upheld by a federal judge last December.
Conservatives question why feds used vast resources to target Rebel News
During the public inquiry this week, de Luca questioned why the Elections Commissioner went after Rebel News so strongly, while at the same time a massive number of complaints concerning CCP interference went un-investigated.
“We are talking about a period of well over four years that the Office of the Commissioner of Elections devoted expenses and resources to this one particular instance of contravention of the Elections Act,” said de Luca.
Now-retired Elections Commissioner Yves Côté, who was the one who green-lit the Rebel News prosecution, said, “I have no specific recollection.”
“The link with foreign interference is not apparent to me for the time being,” said Côté. “What you are saying about this case, I don’t see foreign interference at all in the picture. That said, yes, there was an administrative monetary penalty against Rebel News.”
The Foreign Interference Commission began on January 29 and “will examine and assess the interference by China, Russia and other foreign states or non-state actors, including any potential impacts, in order to confirm the integrity of, and any impacts on, the 43rd and 44th general elections (2019 and 2021 elections) at the national and electoral district levels.”
The inquiry is being headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who had earlier said that she and her lawyers will remain “impartial” and will not be influenced by politics throughout the process.
In January, Hogue said that she would “uncover the truth whatever it may be.”
“The role of a Commission of Inquiry is to investigate the facts in order to understand what happened in a given situation. Under its mandate, it carries out an objective search of the truth while identifying specific matters, draws conclusions and make recommendations to the government,” she said.
The first set of hearings, or “Stage 1,” are taking place from now until April 10, and will include a host of witnesses including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The “Stage 2” part of the public inquiry will take place this fall and will look at the Trudeau government’s ability to both detect and fight foreign interference targeting Canada’s electoral processes.
The hearings are being held at the Library and Archives Canada building in Ottawa.
When it comes to the CCP, many Canadians, especially pro-freedom Chinese Canadians, are concerned considering Trudeau’s past praise for China’s “basic dictatorship” and his labeling of the authoritarian nation as his favorite country other than his own.
The potential meddling in Canada’s elections by agents of the CCP has many Canadians worried as well.
The public inquiry comes after Trudeau launched a failed investigation into CCP allegations last year after much delay. That inquiry was not done in the public and was headed by “family friend” and former Governor General David Johnston, whom Trudeau appointed as “independent special rapporteur.”
Johnston quit as “special rapporteur” after a public outcry following his conclusion that there should not be a public inquiry into the matter. Conservative MPs demanded Johnston be replaced over his ties to both China and the Trudeau family.
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Lee Harding
Alarming claims out of P.E.I. point to deep foreign interference, and the federal government keeps stalling. Why?
Explosive new allegations of Chinese interference in Prince Edward Island show Canada’s institutions may already be compromised and Ottawa has been slow to respond.
The revelations came out in August in a book entitled “Canada Under Siege: How PEI Became a Forward Operating Base for the Chinese Communist Party.” It was co-authored by former national director of the RCMP’s proceeds of crime program Garry Clement, who conducted an investigation with CSIS intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya.
In a press conference in Ottawa on Oct. 8, Clement referred to millions of dollars in cash transactions, suspicious land transfers and a network of corporations that resembled organized crime structures. Taken together, these details point to a vulnerability in Canada’s immigration and financial systems that appears far deeper than most Canadians have been told.
P.E.I.’s Provincial Nominee Program allows provinces to recommend immigrants for permanent residence based on local economic needs. It seems the program was exploited by wealthy applicants linked to Beijing to gain permanent residence in exchange for investments that often never materialized. It was all part of “money laundering, corruption, and elite capture at the highest levels.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars came in crisp hundred-dollar bills on given weekends, amounting to millions over time. A monastery called Blessed Wisdom had set up a network of “corporations, land transfers, land flips, and citizens being paid under the table, cash for residences and property,” as was often done by organized crime.
Clement even called the Chinese government “the largest transnational organized crime group in the history of the world.” If true, the allegation raises an obvious question: how much of this activity has gone unnoticed or unchallenged by Canadian authorities, and why?
Dean Baxendale, CEO of the China Democracy Fund and Optimum Publishing International, published the book after five years of investigations.
“We followed the money, we followed the networks, and we followed the silence,” Baxendale said. “What we found were clear signs of elite capture, failed oversight and infiltration of Canadian institutions and political parties at the municipal, provincial and federal levels by actors aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, the Ministry of State Security. In some cases, political donations have come from members of organized crime groups in our country and have certainly influenced political decision making over the years.”
For readers unfamiliar with them, the United Front Work Department is a Chinese Communist Party organization responsible for influence operations abroad, while the Ministry of State Security is China’s main civilian intelligence agency. Their involvement underscores the gravity of the allegations.
It is a troubling picture. Perhaps the reason Canada seems less and less like a democracy is that it has been compromised by foreign actors. And that same compromise appears to be hindering concrete actions in response.
One example Baxendale highlighted involved a PEI hotel. “We explore how a PEI hotel housed over 500 Chinese nationals, all allegedly trying to reclaim their $25,000 residency deposits, but who used a single hotel as their home address. The owner was charged by the CBSA, only to have the trial shut down by the federal government itself,” he said. The case became a key test of whether Canadian authorities were willing to pursue foreign interference through the courts.
The press conference came 476 days after Bill C-70 was passed to address foreign interference. The bill included the creation of Canada’s first foreign agent registry. Former MP Kevin Vuong rightly asked why the registry had not been authorized by cabinet. The delay raises doubts about Ottawa’s willingness to confront the problem directly.
“Why? What’s the reason for the delay?” Vuong asked.
Macdonald-Laurier Institute foreign policy director Christopher Coates called the revelations “beyond concerning” and warned, “The failures to adequately address our national security challenges threaten Canada’s relations with allies, impacting economic security and national prosperity.”
Former solicitor general of Canada and Prince Edward Island MP Wayne Easter called for a national inquiry into Beijing’s interference operations.
“There’s only one real way to get to the bottom of what is happening, and that would be a federal public inquiry,” Easter said. “We need a federal public inquiry that can subpoena witnesses, can trace bank accounts, can bring in people internationally, to get to the bottom of this issue.”
Baxendale called for “transparency, national scrutiny, and most of all for Canadians to wake up to the subtle siege under way.” This includes implementing a foreign influence transparency commissioner and a federal registry of beneficial owners.
If corruption runs as deeply as alleged, who will have the political will to properly respond? It will take more whistleblowers, changes in government and an insistent public to bring accountability. Without sustained pressure, the system that allowed these failures may also prevent their correction.
Lee Harding is a research fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
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