A sign for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service building in Ottawa.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Canadian politicians, officials and business executives are the prime targets of Chinese government espionage that employs blackmail, bribery and sexual seduction, with the country even enlisting the Bank of China in its foreign-influence activities.
Secret and top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents viewed by The Globe and Mail outline how China instructed its consulates and visa offices to alert Beijing to prominent and influential Canadians planning to visit China.
In addition, the Bank of China has been told to inform consulates of travel plans of Canadian business executives attending conferences sponsored by the state-owned financial institution, according to a Feb. 2, 2022 intelligence report that is rated top secret.
Other highly classified documents viewed by The Globe paint a picture of a broad Chinese strategy to interfere in Canada’s democracy and gain influence over politicians, corporate executives, academics and vulnerable Chinese Canadians.
The overall goal is to obtain political, economic, scientific and military intelligence and neutralize or co-opt Canadian critics of Chinese policies, including repression of Uyghurs and Tibetans, the crackdown on free speech and democracy in Hong Kong and its designs on Taiwan. Beijing has said it reserves the right to use force to annex Taiwan, a self-ruled island it considers a breakaway province.
“This is a realistic threat that all our partners are facing. It is not just about electoral interference. It is multipronged,” said national-security expert Akshay Singh, a fellow at the Council on International Policy. “It’s about different levels of government. It is about academia. It is about civil society and it is about private enterprise.”
In a December, 2021, report, CSIS explained how Beijing’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses three colour-coded “political-interference tactics” to gain influence over Canadians here and those travelling to China. Blue refers to sophisticated cyberattacks on targets’ computers, smartphones and hotel rooms for possible blackmail. Gold refers to bribes, while yellow is what CSIS described as “honey pots” – how the CCP employs sexual seduction to compromise a target.
The Globe reported Friday that China employed a sophisticated strategy to seek the return of a minority Liberal government and to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing in the 2021 federal election, according to CSIS documents. The plan included disinformation campaigns, cash donations to friendly candidates and arranging for business owners to hire Chinese international students, studying in Canada, as campaign volunteers to support preferred Liberal candidates.
Secret CSIS documents have also shown that Chinese diplomats quietly issued warnings to “friendly” influential Canadians in early 2022, advising them to reduce their contact with federal politicians to avoid being caught up in foreign-interference investigations by Canada’s spy agency.
The Feb. 2, 2022, CSIS report explained how the Chinese consulate in Montreal tracks visa applications of influential and prominent Canadians travelling to China. It said the visa centre at the Bank of China was also recruited to submit details of Canadians planning to attend major exhibits such as the China International Import Expo [CIIE] trade fair.
In December, 2021, Zhang Heng, who was China’s acting consul-general in Montreal for some time, instructed the consulate’s visa office to share the names of government officials, members of Parliament and business executives who were applying for visas. Specifically, China wanted the names of presidents and vice-presidents of large Canadian corporations and the presidents of small and medium-sized companies.
Some of these Canadians are considered “work targets,” the head of China’s Montreal consulate visa office explained to the Bank of China in early December, 2021, according to the intelligence report.
Mr. Zhang complained to consulate colleagues that he only found out about “certain unspecified Canadians” who attended the November, 2021, CIIE trade fair from WeChat, the Chinese social-media application.
The massive annual trade fair spans technology, automobiles, medical instruments and medical care to food and agriculture. In 2021, about 3,000 businesses from 127 countries and regions attended the event, which ran from Nov. 5-10 at Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Centre. The Canada-China Business Council encouraged its members to attend this event and the CIIE fair held in November, 2022.
The Feb. 2, 2022 intelligence report was shared among senior officials through such government departments as Global Affairs, Public Safety and the Privy Council Office, which reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Former CSIS agent Alan Treddenick said tactics outlined in the Feb. 2 CSIS report are used widely by hostile foreign intelligence services.
“It is the standard playbook. It is in the playbook for a reason, because it works,” he said.
Mr. Treddenick, president of ATNOH Group, a security consulting firm, said he advises business people travelling to China to leave their personal cellphones and computers at home. He said they should not leave documents in their hotel rooms and avoid being lured into a compromising situation while drinking in a bar or restaurant.
In response to The Globe story on election interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Friday that he expects CSIS to hunt down the whistleblowers. He stuck to his long-held view that Chinese interference operations did not affect the overall results of the 2019 and 2021 elections.
As first reported by Global News, China favoured at least 11 candidates in the 2019 election in the Greater Toronto Area. A national-security source said nine were Liberals and two were Conservatives. The Globe is not revealing the identity of the source because they risk prosecution under the Security of Information Act.
On Friday, Mr. Trudeau played down the reports of Chinese state meddling. The CSIS report talked of how China’s former consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, boasted in 2021 about how she helped defeat two Conservative MPs.
“The fact that a Chinese diplomat would try to take credit for things that happened is not something that is unseen in diplomatic circles around the world,” Mr. Trudeau said.
Kenny Chiu, one of the Vancouver-area Conservative MPs targeted by China and defeated by a Liberal, told The Globe that a disinformation campaign against him during the 2021 election was effective. Chinese social media accused Mr. Chiu of being “anti-China” and said his private member’s bill to set up a registry for foreign agents would target all people of Chinese origin in Canada.
“If you are ordinary Canadians, at least you will find that ridiculous, and you may potentially be able to fact check this information,” he said. “But some of my constituents, they exclusively rely on the source of information being circulated on social media, like WeChat.”
Victor Ho, the former editor-in-chief of one of Canada’s largest Chinese-language newspapers, said he has observed China’s interference in Canadian politics for years but that the practice was even more extensive in the 2021 election campaign.
He said he was surprised by the defeat of both Mr. Chiu and fellow Conservative MP Alice Wong.
Mr. Ho said CSIS was slow to recognize the issue and should have warned Canadians about this inference before the election. “The damage has been done, and our democratic system has been harmed,” he said, adding that the results of the 2021 election did not reflect voters’ free will.
If Ottawa fails to take concrete action, Mr. Ho said, the same thing will occur in future elections.
The United States and Australia have foreign-influence registries where people working on behalf of foreign governments or corporations have to file notice when they are trying to influence public policy, contracts or legislation in Canada. The Trudeau government has been studying the issue since 2021.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
