OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – A highly confidential report from Canada’s top intelligence agency warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thinks of Canada as a “high-priority target” and said the CCP is the “foremost perpetrator” of foreign interference in the nation, noting the regime has targeted the families of at least one Conservative Party MP.
The bombshell revelations come via a top-secret, nine-page report from the Intelligence Assessment Branch of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), as reported by the Globe and Mail yesterday. The newspaper was privy to the documents via an anonymous source. It was produced just before the start of the 2021 federal election.
Overall, the report intended to serve as a “baseline for understanding the intent, motives and scope” of the CCP’s meddling in Canadian politics.
The shocking revelations show that China uses a vast network to target politicians and business leaders using “incentives and punishments” to influence them.
Also, a Chinese student in Canada, who showed support for Hong Kong’s democratic movement, was harassed by CCP agents as well, the report reveals.
The report is titled People’s Republic of China (PRC) Foreign Interference in Canada: A Critical National Security Threat. It documents a multitude of examples of how the CCP went after the Conservative Party and its operations in Canada.
The CSIS report shows that agents of the CCP operate in Canada without being afraid of consequences, as there is no foreign-influence registry in the country.
Also, the report noted how “threat actors almost certainly perceive their activities in Canada to be low risk and high reward.”
The CSIS report noted how Canada has been a key target due to it being a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Lastly, the report stated how in December 2019 that CSIS said a Chinese student who was studying in Canada was reported for having “anti-communist views” because he supported Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
CCP officials went as far as to take material from his electronic devices, and his parents were told to tell their son to erase all of his social media accounts or he would be arrested and his family’s jobs would be taken away.
China’s intelligence agency was investigating Conservative MP’s relatives abroad
The CSIS report, dated July 20, 2021, shows that the CCP’s own intelligence agency, Ministry of State Security (MSS), “has taken specific actions to target Canadian MPs” who in February 2021 voted for a motion that condemned China’s oppression of Uyghurs and other minorities, calling them an act of genocide.
This motion saw Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet abstain from voting, which had the House of Commons voting in a unanimous declaration that the CCP has been committing acts of genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang province.
The Conservative MP who was named in the report for being a target of the CCP is Michael Chong, noting that a Chinese diplomat named Wei Zhao was involved.
The report shows that an MMS officer was looking for information on Chong’s relatives, “who may be located in the PRC, for further potential sanctions.”
According to the report, this action against Chong “is almost certainly meant to make an example of this MP and deter others from taking anti-PRC positions.”
Chong blasts report findings as well as Trudeau government for inaction over CCP spying
After the Globe and Mail report was released, Chong issued a public statement condemning the revelations as well as accusing the Trudeau government of “knowing” about the revelations for two years but not telling him.
“I am profoundly disappointed to find out through a Globe and Mail report that the Trudeau government knew two years ago a PRC diplomat, working out of the consulate in Toronto, was targeting my family in Hong Kong,” Chong wrote in his statement.
“The government did not inform me that a diplomat was targeting my family, nor did the government take any action to expel the diplomat responsible for orchestrating this intimidation campaign.”
Chong then took strong issue with the fact that Zhao still has diplomatic credentials at this time.
“In fact, the latest diplomatic and consular list of accredited diplomats provided by Global Affairs Canada shows that this diplomat, Mr. Wei Zhao, is still approved by the government to work in Canada. It is obvious and dumbfounding that the government continues to turn a blind eye to the threat of foreign interference,” he wrote.
Chong noted how while he was briefed by CSIS regarding foreign interference “threat activities,” those briefings did not provide him with “any information about this individual and specific threats to me or my family.”
“In light of the information reported by the Globe, my conclusion is that the PMO did not authorize CSIS to inform me of this specific threat,” he wrote.
Chong stated that the Trudeau government should have taken two actions when they found out about him being “targeted for an intimidation campaign.”
“First, they should have informed me. Second, they should have declared the diplomat persona non grata. While Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were still wrongfully detained by the PRC at the time this information came to the government’s attention, they were released several weeks later on September 24, 2021,” he wrote.
“Any serious government would have acted after their release to expel this diplomat. The fact that the government neither informed me nor took any action is indicative of its ongoing laissez-faire attitude toward the PRC’s intimidation tactics.”
Chong remarked that like many Canadians he has family living overseas, and he blasted the “PRC’s targeting of family abroad to intimidate and coerce Canadians here at home is a serious, national threat.”
“It undermines social cohesion, and our cherished fundamental rights and freedoms. The Trudeau government continuing to accredit and allow a PRC diplomat to remain in Canada to target my family abroad demonstrates a complete lack of leadership and common decency,” he wrote.
Chong then said the CSIS report is “a wake-up call for the whole of government.”
“The government’s ongoing failure to act leaves all Canadians vulnerable to the foreign interference threat activities of the PRC and other authoritarian states bent on undermining our democracy. What happened should be a wake-up call for the whole of government,” he wrote.
“An authoritarian state targeted the family of an elected MP to try to change the course of a domestic debate about our country’s foreign policy, and the government knew this and did nothing.”
Chong blasted the Trudeau government for not protecting “Canadians of differing political viewpoints from the threat activities of authoritarian states.”
“These political calculations cannot and should not trump our values, our national security and duty of protection the Canadian state owes every citizen from foreign coercion exercised within our own borders,” he wrote.
For his part, Trudeau yesterday claimed that he has now asked his officials to investigate the CSIS report which the Globe and Mail published.
However, that was not good enough for CPC leader Pierre Poilievre, who said in the House of Commons yesterday it is “absolutely unacceptable to see anyone being intimidated, especially a member of parliament in this house, and we are following up on this matter on the report published today.”
“I asked different security experts to monitor the situation. This is something obviously that we need to take seriously and that’s what we’re doing. Thank you.”
Opposition parties, notably the CPC, have been for weeks demanding that Trudeau launch a full independent public inquiry into the Chinese election meddling scandal that has rocked Canada.
However, instead of a full public inquiry, Trudeau appointed former Governor General David Johnston as an “independent special rapporteur” to investigate the allegations.
Earlier this month, the entire board of directors, including the president and CEO, of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation resigned after a report surfaced last month detailing how the non-profit group received a $200,000 donation that was alleged to be connected to the CCP.
Of note is that Johnston is a family friend of Trudeau and at the time of being appointed “special rapporteur” was listed prominently on the embattled foundation’s website.
Johnston’s name has since been taken down from the website.
Late last month, one of Trudeau’s own MPs, Han Dong, resigned from the Liberal Party just hours after a news report broke alleging that he had asked a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 to delay the release of two Canadians held captive by the Communist Chinese regime.