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.
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.
