Han Dong, right, walks with lawyer Mark Polley as he arrives to appear as a witness at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions in Ottawa on April 2.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Former Liberal Han Dong, now an Independent MP, acknowledged at the foreign-interference inquiry Tuesday that he spoke to a top Chinese diplomat about the two Michaels. But he testified that he doesn’t recall advising the consul-general that releasing them would affirm “the effectiveness of a hard-line Canadian approach” to the People’s Republic of China, as just-released intelligence alleges.
Mr. Dong was responding to questions arising from a summary of Canadian Security Intelligence Service reporting about a phone call between him and then-consul general Han Tao from February, 2021 that was tabled at the commission Tuesday.
“I don’t remember but it doesn’t make a lot of sense here,” he replied when asked whether he said the immediate release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig would not change the opposition party’s hard-line stand.
A summary of a CSIS document, based on taped conversations, tabled Tuesday shows that Mr. Dong “expressed the view that even if the PRC released the ‘Two Michaels’ at that moment, opposition parties would view the PRC’s action as an affirmation of the effectiveness of a hardline Canadian approach to the PRC.”
Mr. Dong insisted that he had always pressed Chinese diplomats for the early release of the two men.
He also said he doesn’t recall, as the CSIS intelligence said, that he told the diplomat that having China set a court hearing for the two Michaels would help “placate Canadian public opinion and provide some valuable talking points to his own political party against the opposition.”
Mr. Dong told the inquiry: “I don’t recall saying that.”
In his testimony about the conversation with the consul-general, Mr. Dong complained that it was recorded by CSIS.
Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig were locked up by China in 2018 in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the United States. They were not released for nearly three years.
Shortly before his appearance Tuesday, Mr. Dong updated evidence he had already provided to commission staff, revealing that before his 2019 Liberal nomination race he had met with international students from Chinato encourage them to register as Liberal and that some were bussed by their school to the September, 2019 contest.
Much of Mr. Dong’s testimony before the Foreign Interference Commission dealt with alleged irregularities in the 2019 Liberal nomination contest in the riding of Don Valley North, which he won.
In a previous in-camera interview with the commission, Mr. Dong never mentioned meeting international high school students from China and said his campaign had rented only one bus to bring seniors to the nomination contest.
On Monday, the day before he was to testify, Mr. Dong sent in supplementary evidence to the inquiry, outlining his outreach to students from the New Orient International College Academy, a private high school for mainly Mandarin-speaking students from China.
He also clarified that there was an additional bus for seniors and a third, organized by the school, that carried Chinese international students to vote in the race.
On Tuesday, commission counsel asked Mr. Dong why he only informed the inquiry about the students Monday, nearly six weeks after the original interview.
“Why did I tell you about it yesterday? I was having a conversation with my lawyer and it just came to me,” he said.
Later, he said his wife had reminded him about bussing the students, which he explained jogged his memory.
“I didn’t pay attention to busing international students because … I didn’t understand it as an irregularity,” Mr. Dong testified.
A summary of a CSIS report, tabled at the inquiry, alleged that China had compelled students to vote for Mr. Dong’s nomination under the threat of losing their student visas and possible consequences for their families back home. The summary also alleged some students carried false documents.
Mr. Dong said he would be the first to condemn anyone who used false documents because it would be an “insult” to democracy.
Asked if there was Chinese intervention in Canadian elections, Mr. Dong said: “I see reports about that. I presently don’t see any evidence.”
A transcript of a previous commission interview with Liberal Party national director Azam Ishmael, tabled at the inquiry Tuesday, indicated he said signing up international students with the Liberal Party and bussing them to voting sites for nomination races is “compliant with the Liberal Party’s rules.” Mr. Ishmael said people may vote in nomination contests if they are over the age of 14 and “ordinarily reside in Canada.”
The CSIS intelligence summary tabled Tuesday also said Mr. Dong and the consul-general discussed a House of Commons vote that declared what China is doing against its Muslim Uyghur minority as a genocide. Mr. Dong told the commission he abstained from that vote because “I haven’t seen documents to convince me yes, there is a genocide, or no, there isn’t a genocide.”
In his testimony before the inquiry last week, Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault acknowledged that CSIS had alerted his office in 2019 to a “fact situation that could involve foreign interference related to voting in the nomination contest in the riding of Don Valley North.”
Mr. Perrault said the matter was referred to the Commissioner of Elections but he also told the inquiry that the allegations were not related to foreign interference.
In his May, 2023 findings on foreign interference, then-special rapporteur David Johnston ruled that “irregularities were observed with Mr. Dong’s nomination in 2019,” and “there is well-grounded suspicion that the irregularities were tied to the PRC consulate in Toronto, with whom Mr. Dong maintains relationships.”
But Mr. Johnston said his team did not conclude that those “strange practices” could be attributed to the Chinese consulate in Toronto despite “well-grounded suspicion.”
Michael Chan, currently the deputy mayor of Markham and formerly an Ontario provincial cabinet minister, also testified at inquiry Tuesday. He acknowledged that over the years he crossed paths with Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei, who was expelled by the Canadian government in 2023.
Mr. Zhao was kicked out of Canada in May, 2023, after The Globe revealed he was behind efforts to intimidate Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and family members in Hong Kong in 2021 to retaliate for the MP sponsoring a parliamentary motion critical of Beijing human-rights abuses against its Uyghur minority.
Mr. Chan estimated for the inquiry that he “ran into” Mr. Zhao perhaps four or five times in total. This included encountering him during a meeting with an official from the Chinese government’s Toronto consulate. At the time, he was seeking an introduction to China’s ambassador to Cambodia to assist with a Cambodian business he was helping set up. Mr. Chan said he didn’t know why Mr. Zhao was also present at the meeting.
He told the commission in a pre-hearing interview in February, made public Tuesday, he has helped more than 40 members of Parliament and Ontario members of Provincial Parliament with campaigning over the decades: both door-knocking and fundraising. He named a number of Liberal politicians from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former prime minister Paul Martin to former Liberal cabinet minister John McCallum and former Ontario premier David Peterson.
The Markham politician characterized his relationship with Mr. Dong as “a business colleague, a political colleague.”
Mr. Chan recalled calling Mr. Dong to encourage him to run for the Liberal nomination in Don Valley North after news broke that the incumbent was not running again. “Maybe you should consider,” he recalled saying.
Back in 2019, The Globe and Mail and other media reported on how Mr. Chan denounced acts of violence during the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as the work of foreign actors intent on undermining the state of China.
Asked Tuesday at the inquiry whether he agreed with how the Hong Kong police dealt with protesters in 2019 and 2020, Mr. Chan replied in the affirmative. “The police are there to maintain law and order,” he said.
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.
