News Analysis
Top federal officials have downplayed the quality of leaked intelligence on the Chinese regime’s election interference in Canada, but a review of what has been reported shows that they are more than just uncorroborated sole-source observations.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison told the Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) on March 2 that there was no interference in recent elections and backed his position by saying disparate intelligence reports can be unreliable.
Attempts to downplay the validity of the leaked information have also been made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said on Feb. 23 that there are “inaccuracies in those leaks.”
During the PROC meeting, Trudeau’s parliamentary secretary Greg Fergus called the leaks “unverified or unconfirmed” and asked the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) whether the leaks themselves constitute a form of foreign interference.
But the national security leaks reported in the media since November pertain to information collected from multiple sources, such as wiretaps, while some were in assessed form presented in briefings and memos to ministers.
Some of the information was reportedly solid enough that CSIS took the extraordinary step of warning Trudeau’s team that a Liberal Party candidate was being supported by the Chinese regime in 2019.
Morrison, like other officials who testified, didn’t comment on the leaks, but he described how information collected by security agencies “rarely paints a full or concrete or actionable picture.”
“An example would be a report based on ‘an uncorroborated source of unknown reliability.’ In layman’s terms, I would call this a report based on rumour,” he said.
Morrison was acting national security and intelligence adviser during the last election and hence sat on the panel of the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP), which was created by the Trudeau government in 2019 to look into issues of election integrity.
The panel is briefed by a task force of security agencies and has the duty to advise Canadians during a campaign if an incident threatens the integrity of the election. The panel issued no warning.
The Liberal government says it is cognizant of the issue of foreign interference but that it had no impact on the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
How Reliable Are the Leaks?
In a Feb. 24 article, Global News identified Liberal MP Han Dong as a “witting affiliate in China’s election interference networks,” an explosive revelation after months of news reports saying a number of federal candidates were supported by Beijing but without naming names.Global reported that Trudeau’s team chose to ignore the warning from CSIS and let Dong run as a candidate for the party in Toronto’s Don Valley North riding.
Trudeau has not directly commented on the allegations and instead suggested that concerns about Dong could be due to anti-Asian racism.
Dong, meanwhile, has called the reported leaks “inaccurate and irresponsible.” His statement doesn’t include the words false or baseless, but he has said he rejects the “insinuations in media reporting that allege I have played a role in offshore interference in these processes and will defend myself vigorously.”
The MP hasn’t responded to requests for comment by The Epoch Times.
The Global article said the allegations came from three sources with knowledge of the investigation into Dong. The investigation was conducted using surveillance, wiretaps, and reporting from human sources, which would improve the ability to corroborate the pieces of information coming in.
Dong also reportedly met with a senior official of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) in the state of New York in 2019.
If true, this could mean U.S. intelligence agencies such as the FBI and the CIA were likely aware of the activities. One possibility is that alleged CSIS investigations could have been launched after prompting by U.S. agencies.
However, CSIS could have been aware without receiving a tip from U.S. agencies, as sources told Global that Dong frequently called Chinese officials in Canada.
Such alleged strong links while being involved politically would raise red flags within the security apparatus, and a contact with the UFWD—whose fundamental purpose is to interfere in other countries’ affairs—would increase the potential threat.
Other information leaked by Global News also did not pertain to single-source, uncorroborated, or unreliable reports.
The outlet’s first major piece on the issue of interference by the Chinese regime, published on Nov. 7, said the prime minister and cabinet members had been provided a series of briefings and memos on the issue beginning in January 2022.
The information being provided to high levels would typically be assessed beforehand, unless urgent, especially if provided months after the 2021 elections took place.
The briefing came from CSIS, Global reported, and related to Beijing providing money to federal candidates using intermediaries and placing agents in MPs’ offices.
Global News published another article on March 8, saying it’s aware of two intelligence reports from 2019 and 2022 that warn about the Chinese regime funnelling money to political candidates in Canada.
The article says one of them is a “Special Report” prepared by the Privy Council Office based on 100 CSIS intelligence reports and notes that it was “finalized,” suggesting that it was meant to be read by Trudeau and his senior staff.
The other one is said to be an unredacted report emanating from the security-cleared National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. The committee reports to Trudeau and he announced on March 6 it would be tasked to again look into foreign interference in past elections.
Briefing Package
The Globe and Mail also published leaked information that came from the security apparatus.In a Feb. 13 article, the outlet mentions a “CSIS 2020 briefing package” and that two “national security sources” said CSIS had warned Trudeau’s team about dealings with former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan due to his alleged ties to China’s consulate in Toronto.
Calling it a “briefing package” indicates the information was likely evaluated before being presented and was deemed reliable and serious enough to be provided to Trudeau.
Chan didn’t respond to a previous Epoch Times request for comment, but he told the Globe that the allegations serve “only to ignite xenophobia and cause continued, unwarranted and irreparable damage to my reputation and the safety of my family.”
Other Globe reporting was said to have been drawn from classified CSIS documents that cover the period before and after the September 2021 election.
“Drawn from a series of CSIS intelligence-gathering operations, the documents illustrate how an orchestrated machine was operating in Canada with two primary aims: to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned in 2021, and that certain Conservative candidates identified by China were defeated,” says a Feb. 17 article.
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