Opposition Parties Press Ottawa for Answers on Chinese Spy Balloon

The remnants of a large balloon drift above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, on Feb. 4, 2023. (Chad Fish via AP)

Opposition parties want answers regarding a Chinese surveillance balloon’s incursion into Canada’s airspace.

The federal government has offered few details about the balloon’s trajectory over Canada before the U.S. military confirmed its presence over the state of Montana last week. The Liberal government has confirmed that the balloon entered Canadian airspace from Alaska before crossing back into the Western United States, but it won’t say when or where the balloon was over Canada.

Ottawa first issued a statement saying that cooperation with the United States via the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was underway to monitor the high-altitude surveillance balloon. Defence Minister Anita Anand then released a statement on Feb. 4 voicing support for the U.S. decision to shoot down the balloon as it drifted over the Atlantic Ocean.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said the issue of the Chinese spy balloon must be taken in the context of broader interference, from the purchase of Canadian companies to the presence of unofficial Chinese police stations in the country.

“The tendency of the all-powerful Chinese state to spread its tentacles and to intervene politically, and to position itself in a perspective which could be military in the very long term, without Canada giving itself the means to react, it’s worrying for someone who pretends to defend territorial sovereignty and the security of the territory,” Blanchet said at a press conference on Feb. 6.

Conservative MP Michael Chong, the Toty’s foreign affairs critic, said he hopes the Chinese spy balloon will goad the Liberal government into action to stop funding Canadian research that collaborates with Chinese military institutes. Recent reports show some 50 Canadian universities have been conducting collaborative research with a People’s Liberation Army academy on sensitive technologies, including space science and technology that could facilitate eavesdropping.

“After China’s spy balloon flight over Canada & the US, I hope the Trudeau gov’t now understands the urgency of halting all research funding with China’s military university through a policy directive—now,” Chong wrote on social media.

“It’s long past time for action.”

Chong reiterated this call during question period in the House of Commons on Feb. 6, urging the Liberal government to ban all federal funding of Canadian research projects that are working in collaboration with the Chinese military.

His remarks were backed by his Conservative colleague James Bezan, the Tory national defence critic, who called for a change in Canada’s approach toward communist China.

The Opposition also wants to know why Canadians weren’t alerted earlier, why the balloon wasn’t stopped sooner, and what measures are being taken to protect against—and retaliate against—Chinese spying.

Beijing has dismissed the accusation, saying it was a weather research balloon that got blown off-course. Ottawa and Washington are alleging that it was being used to spy on sensitive military sites.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.