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For the week of May 28, 2023:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s family friend David Johnston, the ex-Governor General, said no May 23 to a public inquiry into China’s meddling in Canadian elections.

Henry Chan (ParlVu)

Canadians concerned about Chinese Communist Party’s interference were shocked by the first report of the “special rapporteur.” One of them is Henry Chan, the co-founder of Saskatchewan Stands With Hong Kong. He joins host Bob Mackin on this edition of thePodcast. 

Listen to the interview. Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of May 28, 2023: Prime

Bob Mackin

An official in the Attorney General’s ministry quietly appointed a special prosecutor for the investigation of an election violation by the New Westminster school board chair who was named an aide to Health Minister Adrian Dix.

Gurveen Dhaliwal was appointed by cabinet order on May 1 to work as a ministerial assistant in Dix’s office. Two weeks later, another cabinet order announced her transfer to the office of Labour Minister Harry Bains. Dix, Bains and Premier David Eby did not respond for comment about the reason for her transfer. 

On May 26, the B.C. Prosecution Service announced that Assistant Deputy Attorney General Peter Juk had appointed lawyer John Gordon on May 4 to provide legal advice to investigators and decide whether Dhaliwal should be charged. The prosecution service did not explain why it chose a Friday afternoon, almost three weeks after Gordon’s appointment, for the announcement. 

Dhaliwal won re-election last fall with the Community First New West party. But, during the campaign, the campaign manager for a rival party, New West Progressives, spotted Dhaliwal at the Queensborough polling station. Jason Chan confirmed that Dhaliwal was acting as a scrutineer, contrary to the Local Government Act section that states candidates may only attend a polling station to vote. The law sets a maximum $5,000 fine and up to one year in jail upon conviction. 

Dhaliwal has not responded for comment. Before election day, party chair Cheryl Greenhalgh blamed Dhaliwal’s scrutineering on a “lapse of memory” and she regretted “the mistake.”

New Westminster election officials referred Chan to the New Westminster Police Department, which investigated and forwarded a report to Crown counsel for charge assessment. 

The prosecution service’s website said: “Historically, special prosecutors have been appointed in cases involving cabinet ministers, senior public or ministry officials, senior police officers, or persons in close proximity to these individuals.”

Dhaliwal was also subject to the School Act’s oath of office, which states: “I have not, by myself or any other person, knowingly contravened the School Act respecting vote buying, intimidation or other election offences in relation to my election as a trustee.”

Dhaliwal is a former constituency assistant to Burnaby-Lougheed NDP MLA Katrina Chen and she worked on Richmond-Queensborough NDP MLA Aman Singh’s 2020 campaign. Her current pay rate has not been announced, but the cabinet order indicated the annual compensation range is between $66,900.01 and $94,600.06.

A February 2021 cabinet order announced her hiring as executive assistant for Minister of State for Infrastructure Bowinn Ma at $66,300 a year. 

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Bob Mackin An official in the Attorney General’s

Bob Mackin 

Nine bureaucrats are joining B.C.’s NDP premier and three cabinet ministers on the May 25-announced trade mission to Asia.

But Premier David Eby’s director of communications refused to release the budget for travel, accommodations and hospitality. 

Minister of State for Trade Jagrup Brar arrived in Vietnam on Thursday. He will join Eby, Energy and Mines Minister Josie Osborne and Jobs and Economic Development Minister Brenda Bailey in Japan on Saturday. The quartet and the support team will shift to South Korea May 31 through June 3, then Eby will visit Singapore until June 7. 

The delegation includes Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat Deputy Minister Silas Brownsey and Assistant Deputy Minister Leslie Teramoto, plus Eby’s Deputy Minister Shannon Salter, Chief of Staff Matt Smith and Senior Advisor of Intergovernmental Relations Jessica Smith. (The Smiths are unrelated.) 

Osborne is accompanied by her Chief of Staff Andrew Cuddy. Deputy Minister Fazil Mihlar and William Hoyle, the executive director of B.C.’s trade mission office, are accompanying Bailey and Brar.

“Each minister has an individual program with some overlap with the premier’s meetings,” said George Smith, spokesperson for the Premier’s office. “Simultaneous programming will maximize the province’s ability to connect with diverse groups, businesses and government counterparts. The premier’s program alone contains more than 40 individual events.”

The government’s Core Policy and Procedures Manual requires a pre-trip budget approval for all out-of-country travel, but the NDP is keeping the budget secret. 

“The cost of the trip will be included in public accounts,” George Smith said. “The delegation does not include spouses and does not include B.C. businesses or other stakeholders.”

In May 2016, during their final year in power, the BC Liberal government of Premier Christy Clark disclosed nearly $1 million in spending on travel in 2015 to promote B.C. trade. 

The total cost of 17 missions and investor trips for that year was $961,715. The biggest expense was for Clark’s nine-day fall trade mission to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong at $289,191. 

International Trade Minister Teresa Wat and Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson’s 13-day China and Indonesia junket in spring 2015 cost taxpayers $164,639. 

This spring’s four-country trip is the biggest by the NDP since early 2018 when Premier John Horgan and three cabinet ministers visited China, Japan and South Korea. Eby and company are skipping China due the to cooling of Canada-China relations and the federal Indo-Pacific Strategy that encourages diversifying trade with other Asian countries. 

However, a 2010-published study from the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C. cast doubt over the effectiveness of trade missions. 

Keith Head and John Ries analyzed Canada’s bilateral trade data from 1993 to 2003 in “Do trade missions increase trade?” and concluded the answer was no. 

Eby’s office has more to spend on travel after increasing the budget by more than 9% to $16.05 million. The Office of the Premier’s budget has climbed $4.75 million since the 2020-2021 fiscal year. 

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Bob Mackin  Nine bureaucrats are joining B.C.’s NDP

Bob Mackin

First, an independent watchdog complained to the federal Ethics Commission about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s choice of a former Governor General and family friend to investigate foreign interference by China. 

Now it turns out, the lawyer that David Johnston chose to help him analyze documents and conduct interviews is a donor to the Trudeau’s Liberal Party.

Sheila Block (CPAC/YouTube)

On May 24, the day after Johnston recommended against a public inquiry, co-founder Duff Conacher said lawyer Sheila Block’s nearly $7,600 in donations between 2006 and 2022 to the Liberal Party of Canada add “another layer to the layer cake of conflicts of interest that mean that everything Johnston says and reports on the subject of foreign interference has no credibility at all.”

Block, from the Torys LLP firm in Toronto, was named to the Order of Canada last year. In 2018, she led a Green Party-ordered investigation that cleared leader Elizabeth May of workplace harassment. Block appeared at Johnston’s Tuesday news conference in Ottawa and spoke only when prompted at the end. 

“The professionalism that we encountered with all the people who helped Mr. Johnston in his work was excellent,” Block said. “We are blessed with with a public service that is very top notch.”

Block did not respond to phone or email messages. 

Democracy Watch’s initial complaint took issue with Johnston’s lengthy association with the Trudeau family personally and as a member of the Pierre Trudeau Foundation. He was appointed “special rapporteur” by cabinet order on April 5, at Trudeau’s pleasure, for $1,400 to $1,600 per day until Dec. 12, without any statutory powers to compel production of documents or witness testimony under oath.

Asked by a reporter on Tuesday, Johnston said he had “no doubt whatsoever that I had any conflict of interest” after seeking advice from 2004-retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci, who practices at the same firm as Block. 

Johnston, the Governor General from 2010 to 2017, taught at the University of Toronto law school from 1968 to 1974, at the same time as Iacobucci. 

Trudeau Foundation member Iacobucci prepared a 2018 legal opinion for corruption-plagued SNC-Lavalin that unsuccessfully urged then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in favour of a deferred prosecution agreement. 

“There is no need to wait for an independent inquiry before closing loopholes and correcting flaws in ethics, donation, election and lobbying laws that make secret foreign interference in Canadian elections legal and easy to do,” Conacher said. 

David Johnston and Xi Jinping (GG.ca)

The former editor-in-chief of Sing Tao Daily’s Vancouver edition, who has been subject to intimidation by the Beijing-directed government in Hong Kong, said Johnston’s report left him speechless.

“I regret to tell that I have no interest to respond to such a ridiculous recommendation from the former Governor General,” said Victor Ho. 

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, speaking in Toronto on Wednesday, promised to order a full public inquiry if his party wins the next election, expected by fall 2025. He vowed to appoint an experienced judge with power to subpoena and decide what evidence should be made public. 

“We have to put this in the hands of a trusted judge rather than in the hands of Trudeau’s ski buddy, cottage neighbour, family friend and Trudeau Foundation member,” Poilievre said.

Meanwhile, Trudeau said Wednesday in Winnipeg that it is up to Don Valley North MP Han Dong whether he wants to return to caucus or focus on clearing his name. 

“It’s his choice but I look forward to that conversation,” Trudeau told reporters. 

Johnston’s report said Dong did discuss the detention of hostages Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor with Chinese consular officials and he maintained close relationships with those diplomats at least through the 2021 election. However, Johnston said the Global News reporting included a “false allegation” that Dong advised those officials to extend the Two Michaels’ detention. Johnston also said he found no intelligence suggesting federal candidates received Chinese government money in 2019 through a middleman. 

Dong resigned from caucus on March 22. In a statement on Tuesday, he said he felt vindicated by Johnston’s report and would proceed with his defamation lawsuit against Global News and its parent, Corus Entertainment. 

Dong visited the West Coast last July and charged taxpayers $2,391.73 for transportation. The co-chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association met in Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond with heads of groups aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front program and officials from the Chinese consulate.

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Bob Mackin First, an independent watchdog complained to

Bob Mackin

After only two weeks in Health Minister Adrian Dix’s office, the New Westminster School Board chair under investigation for breaking the municipal election law was transferred to another cabinet office.

Community First New West’s Gurveen Dhaliwal (Twitter)

On May 1, a cabinet order appointed Gurveen Dhaliwal to be one of Dix’s ministerial advisors. The job pays between $66,900.01 and $94,600.06 annually. However, on May 15, a new cabinet order announced she had moved to the office of Minister of Labour Harry Bains.

Dhaliwal did not respond with an explanation. Neither did Dix or Bains. 

Dhaliwal is a former constituency assistant to Burnaby-Lougheed NDP MLA Katrina Chen and she worked on Richmond-Queensborough NDP MLA Aman Singh’s 2020 campaign. A February 2021 cabinet order announced her hiring as executive assistant for Minister of State for Infrastructure Bowen Ma at $66,300 a year. 

Dhaliwal, of the NDP-aligned Community First New West party, acted as scrutineer on behalf of city council candidate Ruby Campbell at the Queensborough Community Centre voting station last October, contrary to the Local Government Act section that states a candidate may only be at a voting station to cast a vote. The law sets a maximum $5,000 fine and up to one year in jail upon conviction.

Instead of Dhaliwal commenting last October, her party’s chair, Cheryl Greenhalgh, blamed Dhaliwal’s scrutineering on a “lapse of memory” and she regretted “the mistake.”

Dhaliwal won re-election on Oct. 15 and was subject to the School Act’s oath of office, which states: “I have not, by myself or any other person, knowingly contravened the School Act respecting vote buying, intimidation or other election offences in relation to my election as a trustee.”

Dhaliwal was spotted at the voting station by Jason Chan, campaign manager for the rival New West Progressives. Chan confirmed with New Westminster election officials that Dhaliwal was acting as a scrutineer. Chan was referred to the New Westminster Police Department and filed an official complaint on Oct. 9. 

NWPD forwarded its report to Crown counsel, which declined to offer details about the investigation and whether a special prosecutor has been appointed.

“As this matter remains under charge assessment, the [B.C. Prosecution Service] will have no further comment at this time,” said Crown spokesperson Ann Seymour.

The prosecution service’s website said: “Historically, special prosecutors have been appointed in cases involving cabinet ministers, senior public or ministry officials, senior police officers, or persons in close proximity to these individuals.”

Peter Juk, the Assistant Deputy Attorney General in charge of appointing special prosecutors, did not respond. 

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Bob Mackin After only two weeks in Health

Bob Mackin

The Conservative who lost the Steveston-Richmond East seat in the 2021 election to a Liberal after a Chinese social media disinformation campaign said the May 23 report against a foreign interference public inquiry sends the wrong message.

“Any foreign power interested in meddling with our affairs, they see transparently how high the bar is,” Kenny Chiu said in an interview. “As long as you adhere to the customs of Canadians, and not get caught, and the receipt that you used to buy-off certain people to act on your behalf, if it’s not found, then it’s okay.”

Justin Trudeau and David Johnston (right) on Sept. 28, 2017 (PMO/YouTube)

In “special rapporteur” David Johnston’s 59-page interim report, ordered just over two months ago by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the former governor general concluded foreign interference by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a reality. However, evidence that it skewed the 2019 and 2021 federal elections was insufficient, so he recommended against a public inquiry.

Johnston, who is paid at least $1,400 a day through Dec. 12, said he had access to top secret information and interviewed top officials, but could not disclose much of what he learned due to national security concerns. He said he would instead hold public hearings before his final report in October, about improving Canada’s ability to spot and stop foreign interference in elections.

Chiu said Johnston may have been a great governor general between 2010 and 2017, but he was the wrong person for the job because of his family’s long friendship with the Trudeaus and that the Liberals were the beneficiary of China’s meddling in 2019 and 2021. 

“What he should have done is to propose an inquiry that looks deeper, that collects more information, find out more and empower the national security apparatus to do more,” Chiu said. “Instead, he is nailing the national security and intelligence community on the cross, basically accusing them for the leaks.”

Johnston discounted media coverage, including the Feb. 17 Globe and Mail report on a leak from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about Chiu’s loss. He found that Chinese-Canadian MPs, including Chiu “were and remain of particular interest to the PRC,” but the Chinese government’s intention in 2021 was to assist pro-China candidates regardless of party. Notably, he referred to a “misinformation” campaign against Chiu, rather than disinformation, and said it could not be traced to a state source. 

“It is clear that PRC diplomats did not like Mr. Chiu, who is of Hong Kong descent and not from Mainland China, and who sponsored a private members bill for a foreign agent registry,” Johnston wrote. “It is much less clear that they did anything in particular about it, although there was discussion that certain political figures who were perceived as anti-PRC would not be invited to PRC-sponsored events.”

The report did mention a WeChat article from Canada’s Hill Times and China’s Global Times that questioned then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s get tough on China platform, but “the re-circulation could not be attributed to any state actor.”

Kenny Chiu on March 31 at a House of Commons committee hearing on foreign interference (ParlVu)

“I’ve been saying you’d be hard pressed to find the smoking gun with their fingerprints on it,” Chiu said. “So you need to look elsewhere, you need to look thoroughly in other areas, but it looks like that’s not what David Johnston is trying to look into.”

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s senior fellow Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat in Beijing, said the Chinese embassy in Ottawa is “probably cracking open the moutai (Chinese liquor) as I speak.” 

“All that happened was that one of their Ministry of State Security agents was repatriated back to China,” Burton said, in reference Zhao Wei, expelled after a leak about the diplomat’s intimidation of Conservative MP Michael Chong. “They must know that CSIS would have quite a long list of people who are working under diplomatic cover on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department and the Ministry of State Security who —our government is sending out a very clear signal — will not be returned to China. Because Mr. Johnston’s report essentially says that, move along, nothing to see here.”

Johnston blamed factual “misapprehensions” by the media, but he could not say what the facts were, due to national security concerns. He suggested those that leaked information be held accountable and that they may have been motivated by malice. 

“I recognize that absent the leaks, I would not have been appointed to undertake my work. However, that does not justify the leaks, which risk great harm to the Canadian interest,” Johnston said.

Burton said dismissing both whistleblowers and journalists is a strategy bound to backfire.

“It will encourage more people to bring out more information to really leverage a public inquiry as more revelations of documents, that the government may not have acted on, come to the fore,” Burton said. “Mr. Johnston says the documents we haven’t seen refute the ones that we have. I will believe that when I see it.”

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Bob Mackin The Conservative who lost the Steveston-Richmond

For the week of May 21, 2023:

Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West has had a busy spring, locally, nationally and internationally. He joins host Bob Mackin for an update.

West met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver and led a delegation of Metro Vancouver mayors seeking federal transit funding in Ottawa. He also squeezed-in a vacation to Taiwan, where he learned more about the thriving, self-governing island and its people who live under threat of invasion from China. 

Listen to the full interview. Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn or Apple Podcasts.

Now on Google Podcasts!

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of May 21, 2023:

Bob Mackin

Lawyers for the Gitxaala Nation rebutted the provincial government’s case May 20 as the judicial review of the mining claims system drew to a close. 

The First Nation, 60 kilometres south of Prince Rupert in Kitkatla, wants the B.C. Supreme Court to overturn mineral claims the province granted between 2018 and 2020 on Banks Island because it says there was no consultation. Gitxaala says that was a breach of the Crown’s constitutional duty to First Nations and contrary to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which B.C. adopted in 2019.

(gitxaalanation.com)

A decision in favour of the Gitxaala could change the mineral claims system that originated during the Gold Rush. Anyone as young as age 18 who is allowed to work in Canada can pay $25 for a “free miner certificate” and then file a mineral claim online for as little as $1.75 per hectare. Crown lawyer Leah Greathead earlier said that exercising and developing a claim is more complex and expensive, including requirements under provincial regulation through multiple instruments, beyond the Mining Tenure Act (MTA) and the Mining Act. Greathead suggested the two sides be ordered to negotiate a new claims system, if the court rules in favour of the First Nation.

Lisa Fong, lead lawyer for the Gitxaala, said the 2015 release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s summary report, with the call to repudiate concepts that were used to justify European sovereignty, led to Ottawa rescinding its objection to UNDRIP in 2016 and adopting UNDRIP five years later.

“Current legal and social changes all support a corresponding evolution of the common law to reflect and incorporate the rights of Indigenous peoples, as reflected in the UNDRIP, including a duty to states to consult with Indigenous peoples, before extracting resources from their traditional territory,” Fong said before Justice Alan . 

Fong said B.C.’s Gold Commissioner has not identified any impediments to the use of discretionary powers under the MTA that would ensure consultation.

“He’s got the power to change the various systems he says constrains him,” Fong said. “If the commissioner has inflexibly adopted a Crown policy to ignore consultation when granting mineral claims, then he’s improperly fettered his discretion. In other words, he’s failed to address the merits of each application.”

Lawyer Lisa Fong (NgAriss.com)

She also said the Superintendent of Professional Governance has an explicit statutory role to promote awareness among regulatory bodies to support reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and implementation of UNDRIP. She pointed to such provisions across government, including the late 2022-enacted Health Professions and Occupations Act.

“They’ve established guiding principles for every person who acts under that statute, and those guiding principles include supporting and promoting awareness of reconciliation, the United Nations Declaration, and the need to address racism and anti-racism that are specific to Indigenous people,” she said. “And then, of course, for our profession, lawyers. All members of the Law Society are required to take an Indigenous intercultural course to learn about the history of the aboriginal-Crown relationship.”

Ross said he would reserve decision on the case. 

“I have a gargantuan task in front of me,” Ross told the lawyers and gallery. “But I can confidently say that there will be no issue and no fact that won’t be before me, assuming I can find it in the stack. I will be able to, I hope, write cogent and correct reasons as soon as humanly possible.”

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Bob Mackin Lawyers for the Gitxaala Nation rebutted

TransLink Mayor’ Council members in Ottawa (TransLink/Twitter)

Bob Mackin

The 11 mayors and one city councillor who flew to Ottawa to lobby for billions more in federal transit funds finished their three-day mission on May 17. 

But the executive director of TransLink’s Mayors’ Council said the public will have to wait for a report to the June 1 meeting to learn the costs. 

Asked for the approved budget, Mike Buda said “I don’t have that number at my fingertips.” 

“We won’t be providing an estimate, this report will provide the actual cost of 12 flights times whatever the flights cost, economy class and then same thing with the hotel,” Buda said.

Buda did reveal that the delegation stayed at the Lord Elgin Hotel, which advertises a government business discount rate as low as $255, plus taxes, per night on its website.

Buda said the council contracted the Vancouver office of Earnscliffe Strategies, through TransLink’s tendering process, for government relations and public consultation support. Earnscliffe launched the Access for Everyone campaign website on May 11. He said the program is comparable to the Cure Congestion campaign before the 2017 provincial election. 

“We know that people in Ottawa really don’t pay attention to what’s happening out west, in general, and Vancouver in specific,” Buda said. “So, because other transit systems are really in a much different situation than we are, they’re still basically in survival mode, which actually we are too, but they’re just focused on survival.”

The delegation went to Parliament Hill with a long wish list for help in funding TransLink’s $21 billion plan. That includes doubling bus service, building a bus rapid transit system, expanding SkyTrain to the University of B.C. and planning for Metrotown to North Shore rapid transit, building a gondola up Burnaby Mountain, matching SeaBus with SkyTrain service hours, and improving regional roads and bike lanes. 

Port Coquitlam Mayor and Mayors’ Council chair Brad West led the delegation, with mayors of Anmore, Burnaby, Langley Township, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, North Vancouver City, North Vancouver District, Pitt Meadows, Port Moody and Richmond. Delta was represented by Coun. Dylan Kruger, instead of Mayor George Harvie. 

Kruger also works as a senior associate with the Kirk and Co. communications and government relations firm, whose website lists TransLink among its clients. Kruger has not responded for comment.

Buda said the council members met 25 to 30 MPs, many from the Liberal Pacific caucus, as well as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. While they did not get an audience with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, they did meet Infrastructure Minister Dominic LeBlanc.  

“There’ll be a federal election, sometime in the next year, so make sure that all parties headed to the election fully understand what Metro Vancouver leaders would expect from the next government,” he said.

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[caption id="attachment_13249" align="alignright" width="713"] TransLink Mayor' Council

Bob Mackin

The former Conservative MP for Steveston-Richmond East, who was defeated in 2021 after proposing a foreign agents’ registry, said he is pleasantly surprised by one of the main recommendations of the House of Commons committee on Canada-China relations.

Justin Trudeau, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and Xi Jinping (PMO)

On May 17, the committee tabled its report, “A Threat to Canadian Sovereignty: National Security Dimensions of the Canada-People’s Republic of China Relationship.” It contains 34 comprehensive, but non-binding, recommendations to the Liberal minority government.

One of them is for the introduction of a foreign agents’ registry that “would require any individual or entity, including former public office holders, to publicly declare any contracts or remuneration with a hostile state, as determined by the Government of Canada, or any entity affiliated with that hostile state.”

“That’s going way farther than what I was proposing initially,” Chiu said. 

Chiu wonders whether Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino will expedite his public consultations on the issue and if the government will adopt the committee’s wording. 

A series of leaks from Canada’s spy agency, published by the Globe and Mail, have revealed strategies by Chinese government officials to influence elections in Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) found evidence that China’s top Vancouver diplomat in 2021, Tong Xiaoling, had worked to replace Chiu with a Liberal candidate.

The committee emphasized the need for collaboration across all levels of government, and across a wide range of departments and agencies, to combat the threat from China. 

“Moreover, solutions must also involve educating and engaging individuals, diaspora communities, researchers, and the private sector,” the report said. “While effectively broaching all national security threats is not a small endeavour, this report outlines a range of recommendations that can help Canada better identify, anticipate, and mitigate these threats.”

Chiu remarked that the report was a “long time coming,” shaped by expert testimony from two sessions of Parliament, before and after the September 2021 election. He participated in the committee during his 2019 to 2021 term. 

The current iteration is chaired by Ken Hardie (Liberal, Fleetwood-Port Kells). One of the vice-chairs, Michael Chong (Conservative, Wellington-Halton Hills), was the target of a Chinese diplomat’s intimidation campaign according to CSIS. Zhao Wei was expelled from Canada on May 9. China responded by sending Canadian envoy Jennifer Lynn Lalonde home from the Shanghai consulate. 

Kenny Chiu on March 31 at a House of Commons committee hearing on foreign interference (ParlVu)

The report’s first recommendation said the government should convey to China’s ambassador that it will not tolerate interference in the rights and freedoms of Canadians. The committee wants the federal government to work with provinces and territories to support individuals or groups targeted by state-backed harassment and intimidation and to do more to guard elections from foreign interference. 

It also suggested the Minister of Canadian Heritage look for ways to identify and counter China-influenced or China-owned media in Canadian diaspora communities, counter state-backed misinformation, disinformation and censorship on WeChat and TikTok, and direct the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission to ban authoritarian state-controlled broadcasters from Canadian cable TV services.

The final recommendation is to undertake a thorough national security review and publish that policy. 

“It will be foolhardy for the government not to take seriously implementing many of them, if not all of these [recommendations],” Chiu said. 

The report mentions the dashed hope of better relations after Huawei executive Meng Wenzhou was freed from house arrest in Vancouver in September 2021 and China released hostages Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Instead, matters took a turn for the worse.

Two Richmond witnesses were cited. 

Victor Ho, the former editor-in-chief of Sing Tao Daily’s B.C. edition, who was threatened with arrest by the Hong Kong government for his activism in Canada against the Beijing-imposed national security law. 

Peter German, the former senior RCMP officer who authored two reports for the B.C. government about money laundering in real estate, casinos and luxury cars. 

“Mr. German noted that while the PRC is known to take severe measures against domestic drug trafficking, Chinese organized crime groups operate around the world outside of the PRC and use family connections and networks to distribute drugs manufactured in Guangdong Province and elsewhere,” the report said. 

Hardie’s tabling of the report came less than a week before the anticipated interim report by former Governor General David Johnston, hired in March by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “special rapporteur” to look into foreign interference. 

Trudeau is in Japan where fellow G-7 summit leaders are expected to discuss China, including its alliance with Russia and threat to invade self-governing Taiwan. 

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Bob Mackin The former Conservative MP for Steveston-Richmond