John Robson: Elite Pushback Against a Canadian Foreign Agent Registry Is a Ruse

Sen. Yuen Pau Woo (R) denounces RCMP allegations of Beijing interference in Canada during a news conference in Montreal on May 5, 2023. The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz

Commentary

A news feed just offered me a “historic election” in Turkey. But they don’t have such things there. Cemeteries are full of indispensable men, and newspaper “morgues” of crucial events now forgotten and unimportant then. Whereas Canada really faces a historic moment with regard to foreign meddling.

David Johnston is astounded that we won’t simply trust him that there’s nothing to see here and if there is we shouldn’t see it. Why, he once wrote a book called “Trust: Twenty Ways to Build a Better Country.” But an elite pushback against a foreign agent registry mysteriously erupting just when the harsh spotlight turns on China isn’t one of them.

A petition to the government calls “a foreign influence registry … a serious harassment and stigmatization risk for racialized communities.” Which I call a slander on Canadians as bigots seething with hate.

In reality we are among the most tolerant, welcoming people on Earth. This registry risks protecting innocent Canadians, especially of Chinese extraction, from communist bullying. And communism isn’t a race. It’s an ideology that left a genocidal trail of bodies across the 20th century, from Cambodia to Belarus. With the single biggest pile in Mao’s China.

Many in our Chinese diaspora vocally support such a registry because they have direct experience of this evil idea and its hideous consequences. And if you actually wanted to inflame bigotry, one good way would be to equate such patriotism with racism.

The Epoch Times notes that Senator Yuen Pau Woo, appointed by Justin Trudeau, kicked off his Senate career opposing “a motion critical of China’s aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea. He has also spoken out against Canada criticizing China’s human rights record, citing the issue of residential schools for indigenous people in Canada.”

The Laurentian elite is deeply compromised on China, and it would be unfair not to mention that Conservative Senator Victor Oh takes equally suspicious positions. Like the time he signed a letter to a CCP official pledging not only to promote China’s image in fighting COVID-19 but ongoing support of the “great motherland.”

Which brings me to the people trying to stop the registry. Many naive petition signatories doubtless believe the left-wing orthodoxy that Canada is full of nasty fringe minorities itching to fly Nazi flags and stomp non-whites. And why not, when our prime minister does?

Likewise, some organizers and public backers may be “China-friendly” out of idealism with neither venal motives nor shabby actions to conceal. But as with Naziism, there’s no innocent way to be pro-communist and a great many ordinary Canadians know it, whatever sophistries academics and politicians may spout.

The National Post says Michael Chan is now suing CSIS, several of its employees, and two journalists over matters such as “stereotypical typecasting of immigrants born in China as being somehow untrustworthy.” He has been threatening such lawsuits for nearly a decade and had little choice. But his examination under oath may not go well.

In news reports, “Chan was frequently mentioned as allegedly acting in the interests of China and at one point even being the subject of a CSIS wiretap request.” At a 2019 Toronto rally, he said, “We support Hong Kong’s police strictly handling unrest,” a.k.a. crushing mass pro-democracy protests. And he backed the Confucius Institute, which senior CCP official Li Changchun called “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.”

His lawsuit says “Chan is justifiably proud of his Chinese heritage. But he is first and foremost a Canadian.” Perhaps. But the official Xinhua news agency quoted him in 2009 on 60th anniversary celebrations of the PRC in Tiananmen Square that “Great is my motherland.” Awkward. Especially given what happened in Tiananmen in 1989.

If someone says they’re sympathetic to the government of China because their ethnic roots are Chinese, they look silly claiming it’s bigotry to say they’re sympathetic to the government of China because their ethnic roots are Chinese. But if not, what’s going on here?

Anyway, if these people have nothing to hide, what’s the problem with a registry of those who do? Yes, “the innocent have nothing to hide” is a slippery slope. But when you know there’s a problem, and powerful forces within your country are trying to deny it, we need more transparency, not less.

The petition says, “A registry is a misleading way to identify sources of foreign influence.” And it might be compared to, say, a public inquiry. But we can’t have one says David Johnston, formerly of the Trudeau Foundation, whose report didn’t mention the foundation let alone its shady Chinese Communist Party funding. Trussssst me.

Yes, “Phantom of the Paradise” fans, I have Swan in mind here. And when Senator Woo helps draft this petition sponsored by a Liberal MP from Nepean on behalf of a B.C. resident, I know the difference between propaganda real and real real.

Communist subversion is real. And we really will look into it.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.