Speaking in an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, airing Sunday, Richard Fadden, the former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said he “can’t see any compelling reason not to” hold a public inquiry.
“I think in this case, the allegations are so serious they need to be looked into,” Fadden told Stephenson.
“I think a public inquiry is really the route to go.”
His comments come after a recent Globe and Mail article saying China deployed a “sophisticated strategy” in the 2021 election to defeat Conservative candidates and attempt to support the federal Liberals towards a minority government, citing national security memos.
The report followed months of exclusive reporting by Global News into allegations of attempted Chinese interference, starting with a Nov. 7, 2022, report that Canadian intelligence officials had warned Trudeau that China had allegedly been targeting Canada. The vast campaign of foreign interference allegedly included funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election, according to Global News sources.
On Dec. 21, 2022, Global News reported that an unredacted 2020 national security document alleged that Beijing used an extensive network of community groups to conceal the flow of funds between Chinese officials and Canadian members of an election interference network, all in an effort to advance its own political agenda in the 2019 federal contest.
And on Feb. 8, 2023, Global News reported that national security officials drafted a warning for Trudeau and his office more than a year before the 2019 federal election, alleging that Chinese agents were “assisting Canadian candidates running for political offices,” according to a Privy Council Office document reviewed by Global News.
12:24 Did Canada’s election integrity panels get access to China memos? What the minister says
Fadden acknowledged that while public inquiries have a history of sometimes going “nowhere,” he said a number of them have been “very, very useful.”
The other “logical” option would be to have Parliament undertake a probe into the issue, the former spy chief said. But the current climate in the House of Commons, Fadden warned, would make that a difficult undertaking.
“It has become so partisan that I think that this particular kind of topic would be almost impossible for them to look at objectively,” he said.
Given that, he said, a public inquiry is the right “route” for the government to take.
“It should be given a limited mandate so that they report … well before the next election. There should be an inquiry under the Inquiries Act so that they can … subpoena people and documents if need be,” Fadden said.
“The reason why this is important is that the legitimacy of government is what is at stake,” former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley told The Globe and Mail.
“We need to find out what has transpired. I favour an independent inquiry because this is what will satisfy Canadians. It is not a minor issue.”
Canada’s election outcome was legitimate — but individual races?
For Kenny Chiu, the allegations of interference are personal.
Chiu, who is one of the MPs the CCP allegedly targeted, said he believes Chinese agents succeeded in smearing him as a racist in WeChat and Mandarin-language media reports. He subsequently lost his 2021 re-election bid.
As the member from Steveston-Richmond, Chiu had advocated for transparent elections in Hong Kong, voted in favour of declaring China’s actions in Xinjiang a genocide, and tabled his April 2021 bill calling for a foreign influence registry.
“The Chinese interference is a contributing factor to my loss,” Chiu said alongside Fadden on The West Block. “What I’ve experienced here, locally, is that within a very short period of time, less than two years, supporters of mine all of a sudden (became) very angry and emotional to me personally.”
2:01 Beijing accused of targeting Conservative candidates during federal election campaign
Rumours about him then began to spread on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging service, according to Chiu.
“It’s all because of information that is being circulated among them in WeChat and also WhatsApp that, you know, somehow convince them that I’m anti-Chinese, that I’m a racist, that I’m anti-China,” he said.
Chiu told Stephenson he believes Beijing was behind the rumours.
“There are sanctioned articles that are being published in WeChat … we know only sanctioned information can be published, publicized in WeChat, and get circulated there,” he said.
2:30 2017 memo prepared for Trudeau warned of China’s meddling
Trudeau, meanwhile, said last week that while China has tried to interfere in Canadian democracy, “including our elections,” he said it remains clear Canadians were the ones who decided the outcome of the two recent federal elections.
Fadden spoke about the prime minister’s assessment in the interview.
“To be practical about it, we have to admit that Chinese interference efforts in Canada are targeted. They’re not targeting every constituency in Canada,” he said. “Fundamentally, the overall outcome — as the prime minister says — absolutely legitimate. Individual constituencies? Different issue.”
— with files from Global News’ Sam Cooper and The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
