Two Quebec-based charitable agencies suspected by the RCMP of being undercover Chinese police stations have received over $400,000 combined since 2010 in federal funding, according to government records.
The
Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal (SFCGM), which has been open in Montreal’s Chinatown neighbourhood for decades, founded in
1976, received six grants and contributions
totalling $123,750 from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) between 2018 and 2021, according to federal government grants and contribution database.
The Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud (CSQRS), located in Brossard on Montreal’s south shore, received 12 federal grants and contributions between 2010 and 2022 totalling just over
$284,895, according to the same database.
Among those, 11 were from ESDC—either through the New Horizons for Seniors Program or the Canada Summer Jobs program for youth, similar to the SFCGM—and one, a “Community Volunteer Income Tax Grant,” was from the Canada Revenue Agency.
CSQRS’s largest single grant—totalling $100,000—was
issued by ESDC in 2010 for an “Elder Abuse Awareness” program.
The
National Post originally reported on May 18 that the SFCGM received a total of $200,000 in federal funds between 2020 and 2022, according to
financial records filed by the organization to the CRA because of its charitable status.
Year by year, the SFCGM reported in the records that it received $178,450 from the federal government in the 2020–2021 fiscal year and $21,728 in 2021–2022.
Both organizations are
overseen by Montreal-area city councillor Xixi Li. Li, who serves as director for both groups, has been requested by Brossard Mayor Doreen Assaad to recuse herself from her role during the RCMP investigation, reported the Journal de Montréal on March 10.
RCMP Investigation
The RCMP said in March that it was
investigating both the SFCGM and CSQRS and had received “15 serious tips ... in relation to the presumed Chinese police stations in Montreal and Brossard,” according to RCMP Sergeant Charles Poirier.
Poirier said in a March 13 statement that the RCMP was, at that time, in the “analysis stage of these tips” and said the national police force was encouraging “all the victims and witnesses of illegal activities, and all the individuals being affected by pressures, intimidation or threats to reach out to us.”
In early April, the Toronto Star
reported 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
United Front Work Department—an agency of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with co-opting opposition inside China and carrying out influence activities abroad.
The form also contained a QR code encouraging scanners to download an app called QiaoBao, which is operated by Beijing’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and is used to communicate with Chinese expatriates worldwide.
After being questioned on the matter, the SFCGM removed the intake form from its website.
Concerning the stations’ activity, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino
told a House of Commons committee on April 27 that the RCMP had “taken decisive action to shut down the so-called police stations” operating in Canada.
However, the SFCGM and CSQRS said in a joint
statement to The Canadian Press one day later that they were still operating and had “not received any closure requests from the RCMP.”
Mendicino said on May 14 during CTV’s “Question Period” that his previously inconsistent remarks were due to the RCMP operating independently of the federal government.
He also said Ottawa expects the RCMP to take action if they discover “other foreign interference activities in relationship to the so-called police stations.”
“I am confident that the RCMP have taken concrete action to disrupt any foreign interference in relationship to those so-called police stations, and that if new police stations are popping up and so on that they will continue to take decisive action going forward,” Mendicino said, noting that “disrupted means shut down.”
Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
