Mendicino Says He and Trudeau Only Learned of Beijing’s Targeting of Chong From Media

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino rises during Question Period in Ottawa on Sept. 29, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters on May 3 that he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau only learned of Beijing’s targeting of Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family from media reports on the issue earlier this week.

Mendicino’s comments on the matter come a day after he was asked multiple times in the House of Commons about the date that he learned about the threats but would not give an exact answer.

“First thing I want to do is reiterate that we take any threats around foreign interference very seriously, which is why as soon as I became aware of this specific threat in relationship to Mr. Chong that we reached out to him,” Mendicino told reporters in Ottawa on May 3.

When asked by reporters when he and Trudeau had become aware of the threats, Mendicino replied that it was Monday, May 1—the same day the Globe and Mail broke the story.

“To be clear, as the Prime Minister said, he and I found out on Monday,” Mendicino said, adding that they immediately reached out to Chong and offered him a briefing on the matter, which Chong accepted.

A Globe and Mail report published on May 1 said that CSIS identified “specific actions” in 2021 by the Chinese regime to target MPs who were behind a 2021 motion calling China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities a genocide.

The report also said Beijing sought information on Chong’s family living in Hong Kong for “further potential sanctions.” CSIS head David Vigneault provided the same information to Chong in a briefing on May 2.

Trudeau told reporters earlier on May 3 that he wasn’t briefed at a “higher level” in 2021 about the threats against Chong’s family. The prime minister said he only learned about them this week from the media.

“CSIS made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern,” he said, adding that CSIS only provided him with a generic defensive briefing on China.

Chong also said on May 3 that he received a briefing from CSIS in 2021 “about foreign interference threat activities from authoritarian states,” but added the briefing was “general in nature and did not contain any specific threats.”

MPs asked Mendicino and Trudeau in the House on May 2 when exactly they first learned about the threats, but neither directly answered.

In response to criticism from the Conservatives, Trudeau said it was “simply not true” and “irresponsible” to suggest that the federal government knew about the threats to Chong since 2021 and did not take any action on the matter.

Chong and several other Conservative MPs asked Mendicino when he first learned about the threats, but he would not respond to the question directly.

“This is not a partisan issue. We must all work together to defend the institutions,” he said.

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.