MPs to Further Probe Why Gov’t Missed Crucial Beijing Interference Warnings

Conservative MP for St. Albert-Edmonton Michael Cooper rises during question period in Ottawa on April 28, 2023. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The House of Commons committee at the centre of the parliamentary review of Beijing’s interference in Canadian democracy has decided to expand the scope of its study, with a focus on how government officials missed crucial warnings from the security apparatus about the Chinese regime’s meddling.

The Procedure and House Affairs committee (PROC) adopted a Conservative motion during an in-camera session on Oct. 5, pertaining to its study of Beijing’s intimidation campaign against Tory MP Michael Chong. New committee meetings on the topic will be held in the coming days.

Mr. Chong has caught the attention of multiple Chinese regime threat actors due to his advocacy for human rights in China, according to a highly sensitive Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) memo obtained by The Epoch Times.

Conservative MP Michael Cooper, a member of the committee, told The Epoch Times some hearings will focus on the infamous memo sent by CSIS in May 2021, which advised four top security officials of the threats facing Mr. Chong and then-MP Kenny Chiu.

The top-secret memo had been sent via secure email to the minister of Public Safety, his deputy minister and his chief of staff, and to the prime minister’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA).

Bill Blair, public safety minister at the time, and Vincent Rigby, who was then serving as NSIA, have both said they never received the CSIS memo.

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Mr. Cooper said the memo, of which the substance “couldn’t have been more serious,” seemingly “went into a black hole.”

It had been reported by the media in May that Mr. Chong was being targeted by Beijing, and The Epoch Times recently reported that Mr. Chiu was the other MP involved. Mr. Cooper said this raises the question as to whether Mr. Chiu’s parliamentary privileges were also violated.

Former special rapporteur on foreign interference David Johnston spoke about the CSIS memo in his report released in May, but he didn’t mention that it had been sent to the NSIA.

Mr. Cooper says this “further calls into question the credibility of his report, as well as what information he had, in fact, received from the government to draw conclusions.”

“Either information was withheld from Mr. Johnson, or he glossed over a pretty material piece of information,” he said.

Conservatives want to find out when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet ministers were warned about MPs being targeted by the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Trudeau said he learned about it from the media in May.

Mr. Cooper said he also wants to clarify the contradictory testimonies between CSIS Director David Vigneault and Mr. Blair, “who came to committee and said CSIS made an operational decision for him not to be informed” even though the CSIS memo was sent to him.

Mr. Blair, who will be called to testify before the committee, later blamed CSIS for not briefing him verbally and said he doesn’t have access to the secure email terminal. Mr. Vigneault has said the proper procedure was followed to inform the minister.

Next Meetings

PROC’s first meeting following the motion will be held on Oct. 17, with witnesses Tara Denham and Mike MacDonald appearing. Mr. MacDonald will appear in his capacity as the former acting NSIA, a function he briefly occupied in the summer of 2021.

Ms. Denham is the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) official in charge of the digital and cybersecurity dimensions of Canada’s foreign policy, and she spearheaded the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism. The mechanism is used to identify and respond to diverse and evolving foreign threats to democracy, says GAC.

The motion adopted by PROC also calls on former Tory leader Erin O’Toole to testify and to use in its study his May 30 address in the House of Commons.

Mr. O’Toole, who resigned his seat in the House at the end of the spring session, rose on a question of privilege to share the broad lines of a briefing he had received from CSIS.

“The briefing from CSIS confirmed to me what I had suspected for quite some time, which is that my parliamentary caucus and I were the target of a sophisticated misinformation and voter suppression campaign orchestrated by the People’s Republic of China before and during the 2021 general election,” he said.

Disinformation Campaign

Former Tory MP Kenny Chiu, who held a B.C. riding before the 2021 election, has said that a disinformation campaign orchestrated by Beijing played a role in his defeat. Mr. Chiu had tabled a private member’s bill to implement a foreign influence registry.

The May 2021 CSIS memo warned top security officials that “multiple PRC threat actors, including the Ministry of State Security (MSS)” were interested in Mr. Chiu and Mr. Chong. It also said that Mr. Chiu’s riding of Steveston-Richmond East was of “high interest” to the Chinese regime.

The purpose of the memo was to tell those officials that CSIS would be conducting defensive briefings with the two MPs.

“In all the discussion with CSIS, they they never once disclosed the purpose of their visiting me, and not to mention that I’ve been targeted or [that] the riding has been of high interest,” Mr. Chiu told The Epoch Times.

“When I became a legislator, when I [was] sworn in to protect this adopted country of Canada that I have, I thought that I will be protected and secure, but it looks like that I was a tad too naive in that area.”

Mr. Cooper and Mr. Chiu say the fact that the CSIS memo never reached any top official is an indication that the Liberal government has not taken the threat of Beijing’s interference seriously. The government says it has taken many steps to reinforce the protection of elections, notably by implementing certain protocols.

Public Inquiry

The public inquiry into foreign interference was launched on Sept. 18 after the resignation of Mr. Johnston. A former governor general, Mr. Johnston was appointed in March by Mr. Trudeau but resigned in June under pressure from opposition parties.

All major parties have now agreed to the terms of reference of the public inquiry and the choice of commissioner after a summer of negotiations between respective party House leaders.

Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue is expected to deliver an interim report by February 2024. The PROC motion adopted on Oct. 5 requires the ability to use public documents from the inquiry for its own foreign interference study.