We humans are odd creatures sometimes. When faced with information that is negative we tend to want to avoid it. If someone says “I have good news and I have bad news,” many of us ask to hear the former first, dreading the latter.
At the end of the day, however, it is best to listen to whatever the bad news is eventually. Chances are it’s not going to disappear anyway, so ignoring it is the equivalent of kicking the information can down the road. Accept it, decide what it means, and what you need to do about it. Unfortunately, Canadian federal and provincial governments seems to want to avoid the inevitable.
Canada has been all abuzz for months now about leaked intelligence alleging that China meddled in our last two federal elections (2019 and 2021) to help elect a minority Liberal government it felt would be in its interests. Many have expressed shock in this blatant interference in our democratic process by an autocracy that is involved in all kinds of nasty influence-peddling around the world. Why would they target Canada, and why now?
That was some warning! The more so, given that what Mr. Fadden had to say was derived from intelligence collected by the women and men who worked for him at CSIS. Spy agencies are loath to go public like this, suggesting the director felt it was serious enough to inform Canadians about this activity.
In the face of this bad news, did the government of the day—that of Prime Minister Stephen Harper—act? Did they expel Chinese diplomats? Were any charges laid? Was there a public inquiry into the affair? Not quite...
In fact, opposition parties pounced on Mr. Fadden’s comments, accusing him of fomenting hatred against Canadians of Chinese origin and calling for him to be fired. CSIS directors, they blathered, were NOT to make any public statements about foreign interference. So there.