The Liberal government is assessing how painful China’s retaliation would be if Canada decides to expel a diplomat accused of targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Thursday she requested that China’s ambassador to Canada be summoned over the affair, saying that outright expulsion is an option on the table.
Chong, meanwhile,said he was told that when Canada’s spy agency learned about threats against him and his family in 2021, it shared its intelligence with the prime minister’s national security adviser and other departments.
That claim appears to contradict Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s assertion on Wednesdaythat the Canadian Security Intelligence Service chose not to elevate the information about unspecified threats following Chong’s criticism of Beijing’s human-rights record.
Trudeau’s office maintains that he was left in the dark at the time.
At a parliamentary committee, Joly confirmed media reports that CSIS believes a diplomat working out of China’s Toronto consulate had taken note of Chong’s relatives abroad.
This happened after the MP sponsored a parliamentary motion condemning Beijing’s conduct in Xinjiang as genocide, which passed in the House of Commons.
In an interview that aired on CTV’s “Power Play” on Thursday, Chong said he was told that the diplomat was trying to collect information about his family members in the People’s Republic of China.
“I’ve been told that the Ministry of State Security in the People’s Republic of China was also doing the same,” he said.
“It’s clear that they were trying to intimidate, by using the family of an MP, to intimidate an MP and other MPs to affect the course of debate in the House of Commons on foreign policy.”
Joly called the targeting of Chong and his family “completely unacceptable.”
“All options, including expulsion of diplomats, remain on the table as we consider the consequences for this behaviour,” she said.
But in a heated exchange with Chong, she said Ottawa isn’t sure whether it will follow demands by the Opposition Conservatives to expel the diplomat in question.
“We’re assessing the consequences that we’ll be facing in case of diplomatic expulsion, because there will be consequences,” Joly warned.
“Economic interests, consular interests and also diplomatic interests will be affected.”
The minister raised China’s 2018 detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, which was widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Beijing also limited Canadian imports such as canola at the time.
Joly also told reporters she would make a decision “very soon” as to whether one or more Chinese diplomats are sent home.
She informed MPs she had instructed her deputy minister on Thursday to tell Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu that Canada will not tolerate any form of foreign interference in its affairs.
Cong responded in a statement Thursday evening to say that China never interferes in the internal affairs of other countries. He accused some politicians and media outlets of manipulating China-related issues for their own gain.
“Once again, China strongly urges the Canadian side to immediately stop this self-directed political farce, and not go further down the wrong and dangerous path. Should the Canadian side continue to make provocations, China will play along every step of the way until the very end,” said Cong.
The question of what the Liberal government knew — and when it knew — is still not settled.
On Thursday afternoon, Chong told the House of Commons that Jody Thomas, the prime minister’s national security adviser, had contacted him to say CSIS had provided her predecessor’s office with a July 2021 intelligence assessment that said his family was being targeted by a Chinese diplomat.
He said Thomas told him that CSIS sent the intelligence to the national security adviser, the Privy Council Office and other relevant government departments.
Trudeau and several key ministers have saidthey only learned about the report from a Globe and Mail article published Monday, which cited a top-secret document and an unnamed security source. The prime minister said Wednesday that he ordered Canada’s intelligence agencies to immediately inform MPs of any threats against them, regardless of whether those threats are considered credible.
When asked about Chong’s allegations Thursday afternoon, Trudeauoffered only: “No comment.”
Chong, speaking to reporters later in the day, added that Thomas told him neither Trudeau nor his top aide, Katie Telford, had received information about the threats.
Trudeau spokeswoman Alison Murphy said in a statement that Thomas told Chong “information from CSIS was not briefed up to the prime minister or his office.”
The government has noted that in 2021, CSIS briefed Chong after China publicly said it would sanction him for criticizing Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. The agency never told Chong about any threats.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on MPs to vote in favour of a motion that calls on the government to take more aggressive steps, including to expel Chinese diplomats involved in foreign interference attempts.
Meanwhile, CSIS shed more light Thursday on other ways it sees China as attempting to meddle in Canadian affairs.
In its 2022 public report, CSIS noted reports that subnational affiliates of China’s Ministry of Public Security had set up three overseas “police stations” in Canada without permission from Ottawa.
“CSIS has observed instances where representatives from various investigatory bodies in (China) have come to Canada, often without notifying local law enforcement agencies, and used threats and intimidation in attempting to force ‘fugitive’ Chinese Canadians and permanent residents to return.”
Foreign interference directed at Canada’s democratic institutions and processes, at all levels of government, can be an effective way for a foreign state to achieve its immediate and medium- and long-term strategic objectives, the CSIS report says.
“Foreign states — again, directly and via proxies — may seek to influence electoral nomination processes, shape public discourse or influence policy positions of elected officials using covert tactics. The purpose is to advance issues or policies that favour the foreign state, or quell dissent.”
The report says these threat actors must be held accountable for their clandestine activities.
“We will also continue to inform national security stakeholders and all Canadians about foreign interference to the fullest extent possible under the CSIS Act, in order to build our national resilience to this pernicious threat,” it says.
CSIS reiterates warnings that the Communist government has made plans aiming “to exploit the collaborative, transparent, and open nature of Canada’s research and innovation sector in order to serve the PRC’s economic, intelligence and military interests.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2023.
— With files from David Fraser, Jim Bronskill and Stephanie Taylor.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
