OTTAWA—Canada’s spymaster recently made a rare television appearance and even rarer remarks concerning government officials falling under the influence of foreign governments, highlighting an issue especially sensitive as Chinese leader Hu Jintao visits Ottawa.
Speaking with CBC News earlier this week, CSIS director Richard Fadden said the spy agency was concerned that some municipal politicians and cabinet ministers in two provinces were falling under the influence of foreign governments.
It’s an issue The Epoch Times has reported on extensively in relation to efforts by the Chinese communist regime to influence Canadian domestic and foreign policy at various levels of government.
Fadden, who later backtracked in some of his comments, said the agency was looking at ways to inform the Privy Council Office of how to make the provinces aware of the problem.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday that the spymaster should provide more details.
In the CBC interview, Fadden said the agency was particularly concerned about decisions some politicians were making that seemed more beneficial for a foreign government than the public good.
Fadden echoed a previous comment from the agency that was unusual at the time as well.
Three years ago, former CSIS boss Jim Judd broke the agencies normal silence by pointing to China as the top espionage concern. At one point, he said the agency spends half its counter-espionage budget dealing with China.
Similarly, Fadden also pointed to China as a country the agency devotes considerable resources to.
He warned that foreign regimes will use universities and social clubs to connect with diaspora and later expect favours from them.
“You invite somebody back to the homeland. You pay [for] their trips and all of a sudden you discover that when an event is occurring that is of particular interest to country X, you call up and you ask the person to take a particular view,” Fadden told CBC.
That comment runs eerily similar to information uncovered by The Epoch Times that reveals many of the Chinese students rallying to welcome Hu Jintao to Ottawa this week were bribed or coerced to participate.
Fadden said there are at least five countries recruiting future political prospects but China is the most aggressive, funding university clubs and making full use of embassies and consulates.
In a later press release, Fadden dulled his comments, saying he hadn’t raised the issue with the Privy Council Office because the cases were not deemed to be of sufficient concern.
In previous reports, The Epoch Times has looked into the influence of Canadian officials invited to China for trips and how, in some cases, their positions on matters sensitive to the regime changed dramatically.
Among the more recent examples is that of Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien. O’Brien returned from a trip to China this spring and decided to withdraw a proclamation for Falun Dafa Day. Falun Dafa practitioners, who engage in meditation and self-reflection centred on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, are the most persecuted group in China today.
