Members of Parliament are questioning why Canadian security officials did not inform them that they had been the target of Beijing-linked hackers, after learning from the FBI that the international parliamentary alliance they are a part of was in the crosshairs of the Chinese cyberattack in 2021.
On Monday, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis kicked off the House of Commons sitting by raising a question of privilege, sounding alarm over what he considered an “unacceptable” failure on the part of the Canadian government to inform parliamentarians that a foreign government had targeted them.
Genuis said that that last week, as first reported by The Globe and Mail, he and fellow Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) Canadian co-chair Liberal MP John MacKay were informed “about a cyberattack launched against us, and 16 other Canadian parliamentarians, in 2021.”
IPAC is an international cross-party group of legislators “working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China.” It comprises politicians from a range of political parties, and has become, as Genuis put it, “a unique target” of the Chinese Communist Party.
According to Genuis, IPAC learned about the “co-ordinated attack” on the email accounts of IPAC-affiliated legislators through an unsealed U.S. Department of Justice indictment in March.
The indictment said that the People’s Republic of China’s state-backed hacking group, nicknamed “Advanced Persistent Threat 31” or “APT31,” had “sent malicious tracking-link emails to government officials across the world who expressed criticism of the PRC government.”
Based on follow-up done by IPAC, Genuis said, they were told that U.S. intelligence officials with the FBI were prevented from informing legislators from other countries of the targeting, but had issued foreign dissemination requests to every government with impacted political figures in 2022.
“It would have been particularly important for us to be informed, because of the progressive nature of the attack. We could have worked with the appropriate authorities to take steps to protect ourselves and ensure the security and functioning of our parliamentary and personal email accounts,” Genuis said. “But we were not able to, because we were not informed.”
While not all of the Canadian parliamentarians who were targeted have agreed to be named, Genuis said that among the other fellow IPAC members impacted were Conservative MPs James Bezan, Stephanie Kusie and Tom Kmiec, Liberal MP Judy Sgro, and Non-affiliated Sen. Marilou McPhedran.
Thanking her colleague for raising the “very important issue,” Sgro rose after Genuis to say she agreed that not being notified was a “very serious breach” of MPs’ privileges.
Expressing dismay that Canada continues “to be so naïve,” Sgro said that as the voices of Canadians when talking about China, or other countries, parliamentarians “have to be able to speak with the protection that’s required and not have to be concerned about being intimidated, or hacked.”
“I would expect that our government would ensure that we have the necessary information to protect ourselves and to make sure that our systems are protected,” Sgro said. “I think it’s very important that we get some answers here as to why we were not notified, and what’s happening next, and how do we better protect ourselves in the future.”
Genuis is calling for the matter to be referred to a House committee for further study.
The federal New Democrats have signalled they plan to speak more to the issue later.
“The government takes foreign interference very seriously,” said Kevin Lamoureux, parliamentary secretary to the government House leader, noting briefly during debate that it was the first he was hearing of this situation.
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus – tasked with making the ruling on whether this matter infringed MP’s rights and protections and what the next steps should be – has committed to getting back to MPs “forthwith.”
This is not the first example of Canadian parliamentarians belatedly learning that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government failed to notify them about being targeted by China, a country that has been at the centre of an ongoing national inquiry into foreign interference in past federal elections.
CTV News has asked CSIS, the RCMP and Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office for comment.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
