PARLIAMENT HILL—On Wednesday, reporters staked various entrances to Parliament Hill’s Centre Block in hopes of speaking with Robert Dechert, the MP whose overly affectionate e-mails to a Chinese state media journalist have raised questions about national security.
And that might be a good thing, according to one expert.
Dechert has been hard to reach lately but Hill Times columnist Tom Korski got lucky when the MP rolled up to the rear loading dock of Parliament’s Centre Block in a maroon van and entered the building through the rear entrance.
But he had little to say as Korski tried to question him on the issue.
“No,” he did not discuss his China trip with the Xinhua News Agency reporter, and “no,” he did not discuss his work, said Dechert.
While the government has stood by Dechert, denying any knowledge of wrongdoing in the MP’s relationship with reporter Shi Rong, media coverage has focused heavily on the Chinese state-owned news outlet’s secondary tasks, which include collecting intelligence and influencing public opinion about the regime.
The Official Opposition has taken exception with the possibility that Dechert, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, may have given privileged information to a possible intelligence agent of the Chinese regime.
Paul Dewar, the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, said Dechert should step aside until all the facts are known.
“Because there has been no real investigation. He apologized and that’s it, and the government thinks that’s sufficient, and we don’t think that’s sufficient.
“He wasn’t engaging in communication with just anyone—it was someone who was a journalist with state media in China, and this raises concerns, and we just don’t know all of the facts.”
Dewar wants to know the full extent of Dechert’s communications with Rong. “Was there other things that he shared with this journalist?”
Dechert has said amorous e-mails in which he tells Rong she is beautiful and he misses her were flirtations but part of an innocent friendship. Liberal leader Bob Rae has dismissed the controversy as a personal matter.
Dewar said the situation would be a different matter if Dechert was sending flirtations e-mails to the barrista at his favourite coffee shop rather than a Chinese state-owned media reporter.
“We are talking about someone who is the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, having fairly substantive communication with someone who is a journalist with Chinese state media.”
Senior Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and RCMP officers told CTV that while the Chinese news agency functions as an intelligence arm of China and Rong was on their radar, Xinhua is not spying on political figures but is instead involved in a different type of espionage.
J. Michael Cole, a former CSIS analyst, wrote in an e-mail response to questions that he was delighted to hear CSIS and the RCMP had looked into the situation, but he was not so sure about the risk to national security.
“We must not forget that cultivating a source takes a long time; one does not recruit a source on a Monday only to ask for classified information on a Tuesday. That would scare the source away, for one. Recruiting involves a gradual process,” he wrote.
“Now, that being said, CSIS and the RCMP seem to say that Xinhua is involved in a different type of espionage than spying on political figures. This is their assessment, and I assume they have the wherewithal to reach that conclusion.”
Cole noted, however, that spying can include trying to influence policy decisions.
“In China’s case, this could mean policies by Ottawa that are favourable to Beijing (for example, toning down criticism on its abysmal human rights record, or not showing any support for Taiwan, Xinjiang, or Tibet, Chinese dissidents, or the Falun Gong).”
Cole said Rong could have easily put Dechert in a position where he’d be wined and dined by Chinese officials and under expectation to give something in return.
“Given PM Harper’s intention to improve and deepen relations with Beijing, someone in Dechert’s position could have been the perfect go-between to make sure Beijing got what it wants from that rapprochement.”
But there is an upside to all of this, said Cole: CSIS and the RCMP have confirmed what many suspected about Xinhua’s intelligence role.
“Let us now hope that everybody who’s involved in matters of national security—and this includes the private sector—has learned a lesson from this. I hope this prompts the kind of education among public servants that may have been lacking.”
