Parliament is set to rise for the summer in a few weeks — but the contentious debate over foreign interference is likely to continue.
Despite facing calls to step aside, David Johnston — tasked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back in March with looking into allegations that China tried to meddle in the past two federal elections — has said he plans to continue his work.
Johnston will be holding a series of public hearings over the summer. He’ll face MPs’ questions when he appears before a House committee Tuesday morning.
The allegations
Citing unnamed national security sources, the Globe and Mail and Global News have reported that Beijing has deployed operations meant to influence and interfere in Canadian politics — including the 2019 and 2021 elections.
Those operations allegedly have included attempts to intimidate and influence members of Parliament and fund political candidates, and the operation of so-called “police stations” across Canada meant to intimidate dissidents and members of Chinese diaspora communities.
The Globe also reported that a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) document stated that Beijing attempted to orchestrate the election of a Liberal minority government in 2021.
Liberal MP Han Dong speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill on March 21, 2023. (Chris Rands/CBC)
In March, Global published a story alleging that former Liberal MP Han Dong — who is currently sitting as an Independent — advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off on freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians being held by China at the time. Dong has refuted those claims and is suing Global for $15 million.
The Globe, citing a top secret document from 2021, also reported last month that the Chinese government was targeting a Canadian MP. An unnamed security source reportedly told the Globe that Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei was allegedly working on efforts to target Conservative MP Michael Chong’s family in China.
In his first report, released last month, Johnston disputed Global’s reporting on Dong and the Globe’s report on Beijing working to ensure a Liberal minority in 2021. He said those media reports misconstrued top-secret intelligence because it lacked a broader context. Johnston also said that additional context could not be shared publicly.
Johnston reported he did find evidence that Chinese officials contemplated taking unspecified action against Chong and sought to build a profile on him, although there’s no evidence they threatened either Chong or his family.
The MPs affected
CSIS has briefed two other MPs about foreign interference.
Both former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and NDP MP Jenny Kwan said last week that CSIS has informed them they’ve been targeted by Beijing.
O’Toole told the House of Commons that CSIS informed him that he has been an ongoing target of a Chinese government campaign of misinformation and “voter suppression” that covered the last federal election campaign.
Conservative MP Erin O’Toole spoke about the briefing he received from CSIS after he was told he was the target of foreign interference during the last election.
Kwan told reporters Monday that CSIS told her she is an “evergreen” target of Beijing. Both O’Toole and Kwan said China’s government is singling them out over their vocal support for democracy in Hong Kong and for religious and cultural minorities in China.
Former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu has blamed Beijing’s alleged election meddling for losing his seat in the 2021 election. He claims he was the target of propaganda and disinformation on WeChat — a Chinese-owned messaging app — that falsely claimed his private members’ bill would unfairly target the Chinese community.
Chiu’s bill actually proposed to establish a foreign agent registry that would require non-elected individuals to declare when they receive money from foreign governments.
Chiu was critical of Johnston’s first report. He said it didn’t consult diaspora communities affected by foreign interference — something Johnston has promised to do during his public hearings taking place this summer.
Chinese Canadians say they don’t need public hearings to tell them what they already know
Cherie Wong, Executive Director of Alliance Canada Hong Kong talks to Power and Politics about her organization’s newest report detailing foreign election interference in Canada.
“We can’t wait for a 12 to 16 month process to tell us something that we already know,” Cherie Wong, executive director of the Alliance Canada Hong Kong (ACHK), told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics last week.
Wong said members of the Chinese-Canadian community feel they have been talking about foreign interference for years without government action. She pointed out that her organization released reports on foreign interference in 2020, 2021 and this year.
“We don’t need another person to tell us there’s foreign interference. We don’t need another person to study the tactics. We have studied it and we have presented it in this beautiful report,” Wong told CBC’s David Cochrane.
Johnston’s first report
In his report, Johnston did conclude that foreign governments are attempting to influence political candidates and voters, and that more needs to be done to combat these attempts. But the former governor general ultimately advised against calling a formal public inquiry to investigate foreign interference, triggering outrage among opposition parties.
Johnston suggested that a formal public inquiry would not serve to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections because much of the classified information he has reviewed would need to remain secret.
While much of the public attention has been focused on Johnston’s decision not to call for an inquiry and his personal connections to the prime minister, he did flag issues with intelligence.
Specifically, Johnston criticized the way intelligence agencies, including CSIS and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), share intelligence with the federal government.
“The materials are disseminated, but no one keeps track of who specifically received or read them,” Johnston wrote in his report. “This means there can be intelligence that is ‘sent’ to various consumers, but it does not always actually get consumed.”
Johnston said staff at the Prime Minister’s Office told him they’re given a large binder in a secure room to review secret material, with no ability to take notes for security reasons.
Jody Thomas, national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, waits to appear as a witness before the standing committee on procedure and House affairs (PROC) on June 1, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
Johnston said that binder covers a range of intelligence topics from around the world and no one tells PMO staff to concentrate on one topic or another. If staffers are away, he said, they may not see the binder that day.
Johnston said he also found evidence that Chinese officials contemplated taking unspecified action against Chong in 2021 and sought to build a profile on him. Testifying before a House committee last week, Trudeau’s national security adviser Jody Thomas said there has been a “breakdown” in how intelligence is shared in the government and used Chong’s case as an example.
Thomas said CSIS sent a memo in July 2021 to three deputy ministers across government, but the message effectively went into a “black hole.”
How much is Johnston being paid?
Johnston is receiving a per diem in the range of $1,400 to $1,600, according to the Order in Council that announced his appointment.
In 2017, the government set up the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a bipartisan assembly of MPs and senators who are sworn to secrecy in order to receive top-secret briefings.
Trudeau has asked the committee to look into foreign interference. Their classified reports are sent to the prime minister before a redacted version is made public.
During a committee appearance last month, Chong called for NSICOP to be brought under the purview of Parliament so it can be answerable to the House, rather than the prime minister.
The government established the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol in 2019 to monitor and alert the public to credible threats to Canada’s elections. The team is a panel of top public servants tasked with determining whether incidents of interference meet the threshold for warning the public.
A report reviewing that task force’s work was released in February. It said that interference didn’t affect the outcome of the 2021 vote. But it did recommend that the government lower the threshold for alerting the public to potential interference attempts.
The government also established the Security and Intelligence Threats (SITE) task force in 2019, a body consisting of representatives of Canada’s top security agencies. SITE has met regularly since 2019 and now meets on a monthly basis; its meeting become more frequent as elections draw near.
During his speech last week in the House, O’Toole criticized both task forces for failing to tell him he was a target.
Zhao Wei was expelled from Canada after reportedly playing a role in attempts to gather information on MP Michael Chong’s family in Hong Kong in 2021. (Easy Media/Easyca.ca)
Under a foreign agent registry, people who act on behalf of a foreign state to advance its goals would have to disclose their ties to the government employing them.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
Outside of sports and a “Cold front coming down from Canada,” American news media only report on Canadian events that they believe are, or will be, influential to the US. Therefore, when Justin Trudeau’s announcement, having finally read the room, that Canada will be reducing the number of permanent residents admitted by more than 20 percent and temporary residents like skilled workers and college students will be cut by more than half made news south of the border, I knew the American media felt Trudeau’s about-face on immigration was newsworthy because many Americans would relate to Trudeau realizing Canada was accepting more immigrants than it could manage and are hoping their next POTUS will follow Trudeau’s playbook.
Canada, with lots of space and lacking convenient geographical ways for illegal immigrants to enter the country, though still many do, has a global reputation for being incredibly accepting of immigrants. On the surface, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver appear to be multicultural havens. However, as the saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is never good,” resulting in a sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which you can almost taste in the air. A growing number of Canadians, regardless of their political affiliation, are blaming recent immigrants for causing the housing affordability crises, inflation, rise in crime and unemployment/stagnant wages.
Throughout history, populations have engulfed themselves in a tribal frenzy, a psychological state where people identify strongly with their own group, often leading to a ‘us versus them’ mentality. This has led to quick shifts from complacency to panic and finger-pointing at groups outside their tribe, a phenomenon that is not unique to any particular culture or time period.
My take on why the American news media found Trudeau’s blatantly obvious attempt to save his political career, balancing appeasement between the pitchfork crowd, who want a halt to immigration until Canada gets its house in order, and immigrant voters, who traditionally vote Liberal, newsworthy; the American news media, as do I, believe immigration fatigue is why Kamala Harris is going to lose on November 5th.
Because they frequently get the outcome wrong, I don’t take polls seriously. According to polls in 2014, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives and Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals were in a dead heat in Ontario, yet Wynne won with more than twice as many seats. In the 2018 Quebec election, most polls had the Coalition Avenir Québec with a 1-to-5-point lead over the governing Liberals. The result: The Coalition Avenir Québec enjoyed a landslide victory, winning 74 of 125 seats. Then there’s how the 2016 US election polls showing Donald Trump didn’t have a chance of winning against Hillary Clinton were ridiculously way off, highlighting the importance of the election day poll and, applicable in this election as it was in 2016, not to discount ‘shy Trump supporters;’ voters who support Trump but are hesitant to express their views publicly due to social or political pressure.
My distrust in polls aside, polls indicate Harris is leading by a few points. One would think that Trump’s many over-the-top shenanigans, which would be entertaining were he not the POTUS or again seeking the Oval Office, would have him far down in the polls. Trump is toe-to-toe with Harris in the polls because his approach to the economy—middle-class Americans are nostalgic for the relatively strong economic performance during Trump’s first three years in office—and immigration, which Americans are hyper-focused on right now, appeals to many Americans. In his quest to win votes, Trump is doing what anyone seeking political office needs to do: telling the people what they want to hear, strategically using populism—populism that serves your best interests is good populism—to evoke emotional responses. Harris isn’t doing herself any favours, nor moving voters, by going the “But, but… the orange man is bad!” route, while Trump cultivates support from “weird” marginal voting groups.
To Harris’s credit, things could have fallen apart when Biden abruptly stepped aside. Instead, Harris quickly clinched the nomination and had a strong first few weeks, erasing the deficit Biden had given her. The Democratic convention was a success, as was her acceptance speech. Her performance at the September 10th debate with Donald Trump was first-rate.
Harris’ Achilles heel is she’s now making promises she could have made and implemented while VP, making immigration and the economy Harris’ liabilities, especially since she’s been sitting next to Biden, watching the US turn into the circus it has become. These liabilities, basically her only liabilities, negate her stance on abortion, democracy, healthcare, a long-winning issue for Democrats, and Trump’s character. All Harris has offered voters is “feel-good vibes” over substance. In contrast, Trump offers the tangible political tornado (read: steamroll the problems Americans are facing) many Americans seek. With Trump, there’s no doubt that change, admittedly in a messy fashion, will happen. If enough Americans believe the changes he’ll implement will benefit them and their country…
The case against Harris on immigration, at a time when there’s a huge global backlash to immigration, even as the American news media are pointing out, in famously immigrant-friendly Canada, is relatively straightforward: During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, illegal Southern border crossings increased significantly.
The words illegal immigration, to put it mildly, irks most Americans. On the legal immigration front, according to Forbes, most billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants. Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, to name three, have immigrants as CEOs. Immigrants, with tech skills and an entrepreneurial thirst, have kept America leading the world. I like to think that Americans and Canadians understand the best immigration policy is to strategically let enough of these immigrants in who’ll increase GDP and tax base and not rely on social programs. In other words, Americans and Canadians, and arguably citizens of European countries, expect their governments to be more strategic about immigration.
The days of the words on a bronze plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal’s lower level, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” are no longer tolerated. Americans only want immigrants who’ll benefit America.
Does Trump demagogue the immigration issue with xenophobic and racist tropes, many of which are outright lies, such as claiming Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets? Absolutely. However, such unhinged talk signals to Americans who are worried about the steady influx of illegal immigrants into their country that Trump can handle immigration so that it’s beneficial to the country as opposed to being an issue of economic stress.
In many ways, if polls are to be believed, Harris is paying the price for Biden and her lax policies early in their term. Yes, stimulus spending quickly rebuilt the job market, but at the cost of higher inflation. Loosen border policies at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment was increasing was a gross miscalculation, much like Trudeau’s immigration quota increase, and Biden indulging himself in running for re-election should never have happened.
If Trump wins, Democrats will proclaim that everyone is sexist, racist and misogynous, not to mention a likely White Supremacist, and for good measure, they’ll beat the “voter suppression” button. If Harris wins, Trump supporters will repeat voter fraud—since July, Elon Musk has tweeted on Twitter at least 22 times about voters being “imported” from abroad—being widespread.
Regardless of who wins tomorrow, Americans need to cool down; and give the divisive rhetoric a long overdue break. The right to an opinion belongs to everyone. Someone whose opinion differs from yours is not by default sexist, racist, a fascist or anything else; they simply disagree with you. Americans adopting the respectful mindset to agree to disagree would be the best thing they could do for the United States of America.
PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office if elected president.
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
Kennedy made the declaration Saturday on the social media platform X alongside a variety of claims about the heath effects of fluoride.
“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, “want to Make America Healthy Again,” he added, repeating a phrase Trump often uses and links to Kennedy.
Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”
The former president declined to say whether he would seek a Cabinet role for Kennedy, a job that would require Senate confirmation, but added, “He’s going to have a big role in the administration.”
Asked whether banning certain vaccines would be on the table, Trump said he would talk to Kennedy and others about that. Trump described Kennedy as “a very talented guy and has strong views.”
The sudden and unexpected weekend social media post evoked the chaotic policymaking that defined Trump’s White House tenure, when he would issue policy declarations on Twitter at virtually all hours. It also underscored the concerns many experts have about Kennedy, who has long promoted debunked theories about vaccine safety, having influence over U.S. public health.
In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.
Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.
In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
In his X post Saturday, Kennedy tagged Michael Connett, the lead attorney representing the plaintiff in that lawsuit, the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization has a lawsuit pending against news organizations including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy is on leave from the group but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
What role Kennedy might hold if Trump wins on Tuesday remains unclear. Kennedy recently told NewsNation that Trump asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and some agencies under the Department of Agriculture.
But for now, the former independent presidential candidate has become one of Trump’s top surrogates. Trump frequently mentions having the support of Kennedy, a scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy traveled with Trump Friday and spoke at his rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump said Saturday that he told Kennedy: “You can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except oil policy.
“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump added.
