Former Vancouver Mayor Says He Was Informed of Chinese Consulate Interference in City’s Election

Then-Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart speaks during a press conference in Vancouver on July 4, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

Former Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, who lost his re-election bid in the city’s 2022 municipal election, says he was previously informed by a media outlet of what he judged to be “illegal” interference by the Chinese consulate in that election.

Stewart appeared on an episode of the podcast “This is VANCOLOUR” on March 24 to elaborate on a Globe and Mail report published on March 16 that quoted leaked information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The report explained how then-Chinese consul general Tong Xiaoling allegedly sought to mobilize the local Chinese community to help elect preferred candidates.

Stewart told the podcast’s host, Mo Amir, that he had been told by the Globe about CSIS information suggesting there was “active communication” between Vancouver city councillors and Tong, although that detail was not included in the Globe’s March 16 report.

“There was active communication between city councilors and the consul general,” he said. “That’s what the Globe and Mail told me that hasn’t come out in any of the stories. I’m not sure if they changed their mind or whatever, but that’s what I was told.”

Stewart added that if the alleged communication between city councillors and the Chinese consul general is true, it would constitute illegal behaviour.

“I would say that if you’re using resources that are not reported to Elections British Columbia, that’s illegal. You can’t do that,” he said.

Current Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim unseated Stewart in the 2022 municipal election by nearly 37,000 votes and has strongly pushed back against allegations of Chinese interference in the media report.

Sim said during a press conference on March 16 that he wants to “know about it” if there is proof of Chinese interference in the city’s latest election.

“I’m a Canadian,” he said. “If there was proof of this, I’d be as mad as hell as anybody else.”

Stewart has said he’s not blaming his election loss on foreign interference.

‘Cut Off Communications’

Stewart was formerly a federal NDP MP and subsequently served as Vancouver’s mayor from 2018 to 2022.

He told Amir during the podcast that he had a “decent relationship” with the Vancouver Chinese consul general shortly after he was elected and also had a number of meetings with her.

However, he said relations between the consulate and his office began deteriorating after Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arbitrarily detained by the Chinese government for over three years shortly after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant to have her extradited on fraud charges.

“I said, ‘That’s enough. I don’t want to talk to you anymore,’ so I cut off communications,” Stewart related about his previous communications with the consulate.

Stewart added that two CSIS officers gave him a general briefing about foreign interference in May 2022. He said the CSIS officers asked him a “ton of questions” about his relationship with Tong and asked if he had noticed any activities that he would’ve deemed as foreign interference.

Stewart said he told the CSIS officers that he hadn’t seen any evidence of foreign interference at the time “other than very public attacks” on him by Tong, which he said he viewed as “totally inappropriate.”

“This consul general was way off base,” he told Amir.

He later added that he’s unsure if any of the foreign interference allegations in Vancouver’s 2022 elections are true, saying he doesn’t have access to intelligence information to be certain.

“But when you have your spy agency leaking documents because nobody’s paying attention, I think that you need to pay attention,” he said.

“My suspicion is there’s stuff going on here that needs to be looked at and we need to be cautious.”

 Andrew Chen and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.