BC Premier Says He Met CSIS Regional Director Over Alleged Chinese Interference in Vancouver Election

B.C. Premier David Eby speaks during an announcement in Delta, B.C., on May 2, 2023. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

British Columbia Premier David Eby says he has met with the regional director of Canada’s spy agency over allegations of Beijing meddling in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election.

Speaking at a press conference on May 8, Eby said he was told that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) could not share information with him as he is not a “direct client” of theirs. Eby said he found this “frustrating” but that the spy agency took a ”constructive approach” to their meeting.

“[They] said they were putting themselves in a position to be able to provide information to Elections BC if they receive notice of foreign interference in B.C. election,” Eby said.

‘Very Troubled’

The meeting with CSIS was called after The Globe and Mail published an article on March 16 alleging the Chinese consulate in Vancouver interfered in the city’s politics by using proxies in diaspora community groups and grooming certain candidates to run in the October municipal election.

Eby responded the next day, saying he was “very troubled” by the allegations. He said at the time he had asked for a briefing from CSIS, as Canadians deserve a “thorough and independent investigation” into the claims made in the Globe’s article.

Citing a report by CSIS, the Globe detailed how in mid-November 2021, China’s then Consul-General Tong Xiaoling talked about orchestrating some in the local Chinese community to help elect a mayor and a city councillor favoured by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“With regards to the 2022 City of Vancouver mayoral election, Tong stated that they need to do all they could to increase the ethnic voting percentage. They needed to get all eligible voters to come out and elect a specific Chinese-Canadian candidate,” according to the CSIS document, dated Jan. 10, 2022, viewed by the Globe.

The document, however, did not name the consulate’s favoured mayoral and council contenders, the media outlet reported.

Reactions

Current Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, who unseated his predecessor Kennedy Stewart in the 2022 municipal election by nearly 37,000 votes, had pushed back against allegations of Chinese interference in the media report.

At a press conference on March 16, Sim said his ethnicity was a factor behind the allegations he described as a “bunch of insinuations.”

Stewart confirmed he was informed of Chinese interference in the city’s election during his appearance on an episode of the podcast “This is VANCOLOUR” on March 24.

The former mayor said the Globe told him that CSIS suggested there was “active communication” between Vancouver city councillors and Tong, although that detail was not included in the Globe’s report.

Stewart said his relationship with Tong turned sour after Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arbitrarily detained by the CCP for over three years. He added that if the alleged communication between city councillors and the Chinese consul general is true, it would constitute illegal behaviour.

Advance Notice

Eby told reporters on May 8 that an agreement had been struck with CSIS whereby the agency will give advance notice to his government and Elections BC on issues related to foreign interference “so that we can have legislation in place, laws in place that Elections BC can respond quickly to that type of information.”

The premier added he has requested a future meeting with CSIS Director David Vigneault in order to get more information needed for his government to act against such interference.

Andrew Chen, Peter Wilson and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.