Bob Mackin
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is trying to interfere in Canada’s April 28 federal election, according to an official federal election monitoring group.
The Security Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) revealed at its weekly briefing on April 7 that China’s most-popular WeChat news account carried stories on March 10 and March 25 that promoted Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The anonymous Youli-Youmian blog is tied to the CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. SITE, which includes Canada’s intelligence agencies, detected spikes in coordinated inauthentic behaviour intended to influence Chinese-Canadian voters who use WeChat.
SITE Task Force comparison of WeChat posts promoting Mark Carney (Global Affairs/Privy Council)
Youli-Youmian called Carney “Canada’s hard-tough prime minister and a “rock star economist.”
The same WeChat entity targeted Conservative MP Michael Chong in June 2023 and Liberal Chrystia Freeland in January 2025 when the former Deputy Prime Minister was running for the Liberal leadership against Carney.
The Communications Security Establishment’s 2023-2024 National Cyber Threat Assessment warned that WeChat “has been used to spread misinformation, disinformation and malinformation and propaganda specific to the Chinese diaspora.” WeChat was also used during the 2021 federal election to spread disinformation to help Liberal Parm Bains defeat Steveston-Richmond East Conservative incumbent Kenny Chiu.
The announcement came a week after Carney refused to kick out a Liberal candidate who suggested his Conservative opponent be handed over to Chinese diplomats for a bounty.
Paul Chiang, the Don Valley North incumbent, quit late March 31. He made the comments in January against Joe Tay, a Conservative candidate wanted by the Hong Kong Police for his pro-democracy activism.
The Canadian Friends of Hong Kong, in conjunction with the Found in Translation Substack, launched the first of nine visual maps April 7 to identify and counter agents of Beijing’s political warfare.
The first Dotting the Map flowchart is called “Follow the Money, Follow our PMs,” and provides a timeline from Pierre Trudeau to Carney.
Canadian Friends of Hong Kong co-sponsored map showing China’s influence in Canada.
It mentions the elder Trudeau’s opening of diplomatic relations with Mao Zedong in 1970. Also the late 1990s end of Ports Canada Police by Jean Chretien at the same time as national security warnings about China targeting Canadian ports. Also mentioned, the influence of the Desmarais family, their backing of the Canada China Business Council and co-founder SNC-Lavalin, now known as AtkinsRealis.
About Carney, Dotting the Map emphasizes recent deals with China during his chairmanship of Brookfield Asset Management.
“Brookfield has substantial offshore banking exposure and manages over US$3B assets in PRC state-linked real estate and energy companies.”
Carney held US$6.8 million in Brookfield stock options at the end of 2024. He resigned from Brookfield to enter politics, but has refused to publish his list of shareholdings. Instead, he has opted to follow parliamentary disclosure rules that would only kick-in if he is elected in the Nepean riding on April 28. That is not good enough for either Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
Charles Burton, a sinologist and former diplomat at Canada’s Beijing embassy, said the detailed schematic shows the “tangled relations between agencies of the CCP, Chinese business, Beijing supported astroturf social organizations in the guise of Chinese diaspora civil society, their Chinese-Canadian leaders (many selected and vetted by Beijing) and Canada’s political and economic elite.”
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