Police Cooperation Agreement With China ‘Surprised’ Canadians, Senator Says

RCMP Senior Deputy Commissioner Bryan Larkin takes part in a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 7, 2025. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Many Canadians were surprised by the federal government’s recent law enforcement cooperation agreement with Beijing, Senator Clément Gignac told an RCMP representative during a parliamentary committee meeting.

Speaking to RCMP Senior Deputy Commissioner Bryan Larkin, who testified before the Senate national finance committee on April 21, Gignac said the government’s announcement in January that Prime Minister Mark Carney had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security “surprised a lot of Canadians.”

“Can you tell me a little bit? What does it consist of?” Gignac asked Larkin. “What is this public safety program with China?”

Larkin told the Senate the MOU signed during Carney’s visit to China is a “re-enhancement” of one that was first signed in 2010, then reviewed in 2014 and 2018, noting that MOUs with many different law enforcement agencies are reviewed, modified, or updated to modernize language “from time to time.”

“I cannot speak to the specifics of what is in the MOU,“ Larkin said. ”We would not disclose anything in the agreement without their permission, and mutually they would do the same.”

“But what I can tell you, to bring ease of concern, is that these are very standard,” he said.

He noted the RCMP has MOUs with the FBI, the DEA, the CIA, as well as with other police agencies in Canada, and such agreements are about how law enforcement agencies share information, disclose information, how they conduct mutual investigations when requesting information, and the address the cost of investigations.

“It’s also generally in the spirit of cooperation, the spirit of ensuring public safety, not only in our country, but also across,” he said.

The RCMP is particularly interested in aspects of the MOU relating to precursors, fentanyl, other illicit drugs in society, and how the RCMP can work collaboratively with China’s Ministry of Public Security “to ensure the safety of Canadians,” Larkin added.

Since the agreement was made, the federal government has kept details of the MOU confidential, though other MOUs signed during Carney’s China visit have been made public.

Conservatives have repeatedly pressed Canada’s minister of public safety to allow parliamentarians to review the agreement if it can’t be released to the public.

Tory MP and public safety critic Frank Caputo made that demand at a parliamentary committee meeting on March 24, following up on a letter he wrote to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree in early February requesting access to the MOU.

Anandasangaree said he had previously addressed Caputo’s concerns and said it is “imperative for Canada to ensure that we meet countries where they’re at, not where we want them to be.”

Allowing parliamentarians to review the provisions outlined in the MOU is the “government’s and your personal duty to Canadians just as it is central to my responsibility as the Shadow Minister for Public Safety,” Caputo said in his initial letter.

Concerns

Conservative MP Michael Cooper, who serves as his party’s democratic reform critic, has also voiced concerns about the MOU, saying China has engaged in transnational repression targeting Chinese diaspora communities in Canada. He said Beijing has “shown no respect for Canada’s sovereignty” and has threatened the safety and security of Canadians.

Carney said during the 2025 election campaign that China was the “biggest security threat” to Canada and “one of the largest threats with respect to foreign interference.” His remarks followed growing concern in recent years over foreign interference and transnational repression by China, with a public inquiry looking into the topic extensively.

His outlook on China has apparently shifted since then. During a January trip to China, he said Ottawa and Beijing were in a “strategic partnership” and that relations between the two countries had entered a “new era.”

China scholar and former diplomat Charles Burton has said sharing Canada’s “best practices” for law enforcement with China gives Beijing “the very information they need to understand the RCMP techniques and exploit our vulnerabilities in countering foreign subversion from China.”

Ten Hong Kong democracy activist groups have also expressed concern about the agreement, saying the government’s lack of transparency about it has intensified fears among the Hong Kong diaspora, who have faced “surveillance, harassment, intimidation, and pressure directed at themselves and their families by Chinese authorities.”

Secret Chinese Police Stations

Meanwhile, former national RCMP director Garry Clement has noted the deal involves the same Chinese ministry that was involved in operating illegal police stations across Canada.

A House of Commons report released in 2023 said “at least five” illicit police stations were operating secretly in Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has said the stations serve in part to “collect intelligence and monitor former PRC residents living in Canada as part of the PRC’s broader transnational anti-corruption, repression and repatriation campaign.”

A 2022 report by Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders also said secret police stations “eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation” and show the worrying growth of “transnational repression” and “long-arm policing” by the Chinese regime.

RCMP Supt. Peter Tsui told the British Columbia Supreme Court on April 20 that three Chinese police officials went “missing” for six hours while on an RCMP-escorted visit in Vancouver in 2018, raising concerns they could be involved in repatriating people targeted by Beijing.

The testimony came during the trial of former RCMP officer William Majcher, who has pleaded not guilty to allegations he helped Beijing in a scheme to “induce” a Chinese expat to turn himself over to China, where he was accused of financial crimes.

William Hetherington contributed to this report.