If you believe the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Conservatives, the Chinese own a backbench Liberal MP, which has been front page news recently. But no one mentions Washington’s possession of our military.
According to a leak reportedly from CSIS, the Chinese consulate in Toronto assisted Han Dong win the Liberal party nomination for the riding of Don Valley North. A source in the intelligence agency claims the consulate bused Chinese international students and seniors to vote for Han during a tightly contested Liberal party vote in 2019. Conservative MP Blaine Calkins, National Post columnist Terry Glavin and others have openly labeled Han an “agent of China”.
But Han and the Liberal Party deny the claims. Additionally, Karen Wen Lin Woods, a harsh critic of the Chinese government, points out that Han’s main competitor for the nomination, Jiang Banggu, was “also very China Friendly. So essentially, the Chinese Consulate had no skin in the game whether or not Han or Jiang wins in the end, they will get a ‘pro China’ Liberal MP.” (Or to put it differently, the Chinese speaking community in that riding is not hostile to Beijing and wanted a candidate to reflect that.)
Other peculiarities about this story are how and why the information was released. One of the principal reporters in relaying CSIS’ recent claims about Chinese interference, Robert Fife, also quoted unnamed CSIS sources to justify the imprisonment of Maher Arar. In the official “Report of the events relating to Maher Arar”, former Associate Chief Justice of Ontario Dennis R. O’Connor, concluded the purpose of a leak Fife relayed was to “influence public opinion against Mr. Arar at a time when his release from imprisonment in Syria was being sought by the Government of Canada, including the Prime Minister.”
The recent uproar about Chinese interference seems to be part of a broader campaign CSIS has joined to contain China’s rise. Its partner in the Five Eyes intelligence arrangement, the US National Security Agency (NSA) pressed Ottawa to ban Chinese-owned Huawei from Canada’s 5G network and Ottawa recently followed the US in banning TikTok from government devices. (more...)
To see real foreign influence, check out Canada’s military
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