Suspected Chinese Police Station in Montreal Removes Online Form After CCP-Related Logo Questioned: Report

The Chinatown gate is seen on March 9, 2023 in Montreal. The Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal (SFCGM), located in Chinatown, is one of two Quebec community groups that are under investigation for allegedly operating as secret Chinese police stations. The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz

An agency located in Montreal that is currently under investigation by the RCMP over suspicions that it hosts a Chinese police station recently removed a document from its website that allegedly bore the same logo as a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) department, according to a media report.

The Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal (SFCGM) has been open in Montreal’s Chinatown neighbourhood for decades, providing multifaceted services to the Chinese community.

In early March, Quebec RCMP said its Integrated National Security Enforcement Team was investigating SFCGM along with its counterpart organization Centre Sino-Québec in Brossard, on Montreal’s south shore.

RCMP said at the time that it was conducting “police actions aimed at detecting and disrupting these foreign state-backed criminal activities, which may threaten the safety of persons living in Canada,” and said it recognizes that Chinese Canadians “have been victims of the possible activities conducted by these centres.”

A recent Toronto Star report found that an intake form on SFCGM’s website bore the same name and logo of the Overseas Chinese Service Centre program, which is directly operated by the CCP’s United Front Work Department—a CCP agency responsible for co-opting opposition inside China and carrying out influence activities abroad.

SFCGM’s online intake form also contained a QR code encouraging scanners to download an app called QiaoBao, which is operated by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and is meant to communicate with Chinese expatriates worldwide, among other uses.

The intake form also asked for the social insurance number of those filling it out, along with their birthplace, status in Canada, income, and their account name on WeChat—a Chinese-owned social media app that has been criticized for spying on and censoring users.

The form was previously available for download on the website, but the Star reported that SFCGM took it down shortly after the newspaper asked questions about its alleged connection to Beijing.

The Epoch Times contacted SFCGM for comment and had previously contacted the organization to comment on police station allegations, but hasn’t received a response to date.

A lawyer for the two centres under investigation published a statement on the SFCGM website on March 14, saying they learned “with surprise” of the RCMP investigation from media reports.

“We wish to remind of the importance of presumption of innocence,” wrote lawyer Virginie Dufresne-Lemire.

“To conclude that these organizations are guilty in the absence of facts could cause irreparable harm to these two organizations.”

Questions on Interference

Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong raised questions on social media about the intake form, questioning whether it could be a CCP method of data collection and political interference.

“Could the information [being] collected by a Montreal group helping newcomers be used by Chinese Communist Party to make political contributions?” he wrote on Twitter on April 4. “Could this be how the CCP is funnelling money?”

Chong was referring to previous reports alleging that a Montreal-based Chinese consulate senior diplomat urged attendees at an event in 2017 to support a candidate for municipal government in the area, Xixi Li, who is the director of the SFCGM and Sino-Québec. Li also serves as a city councillor in Brossard.

Brossard’s Mayor, Doreen Assaad, said last month that she previously referred Li to the director of Élections Québec because of concerns that Li may have broken electoral law during the 2021 municipal elections.

Investigations

Élections Québec said in mid-March that there was not enough existing evidence of Li breaking provincial electoral laws to warrant an investigation.

The Epoch Times previously contacted Li for comment on the allegations but did not hear back. The Epoch Times has also asked Li to comment on SFCGM’s online intake form and alleged CCP connections but did not hear back by publication time.

The RCMP told The Epoch Times on March 13 that it had received over a dozen serious leads on alleged Chinese police service stations suspected of operating in the Montreal area.

RCMP Sergeant Charles Poirier said at the time that the federal police were analyzing “15 serious tips received in relation to the presumed Chinese police stations in Montreal and Brossard.”

RCMP spokesperson Sandrine Paiement said on April 4 that there have been no updates to the investigation since mid-March.

“The investigation is running its course,” Paiement said in an email.

Andrew Chen and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.