Release Names of Parliamentarians Involved in Foreign Collusion, Canadians Tell Hogue Commission

Justice Marie-Josée Hogue speaks about the interim report following its release at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, in Ottawa on May 3, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The Foreign Interference Commission says it received repeated calls from Canadians during its public consultations to release the names of parliamentarians allegedly involved in foreign interference.

A Jan. 16 report summarizing petition and questionnaire answers received by the commission said participants called for greater transparency around “the approach taken by Canada’s politicians to foreign interference issues,” as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The report cited concerns from respondents that politicians may “downplay” CSIS intelligence when it relates to politicians. Respondents also called for the “investigation, public identification, and punishment of compromised actors within Canada’s politicians.”

“Canada should investigate elected and appointed government officials and public servants who may be passively or actively engaged in foreign interference,” the commission wrote in summarizing the concerns it received.

In a special report published last June, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) said some parliamentarians were “semi-witting or witting” participants in foreign interference efforts. This included sharing privileged information with foreign diplomats to pressure colleagues and acting “to the requests or direction of foreign officials” to influence parliamentary work for the benefit of a foreign state.

Then-Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc had confirmed knowing “a number of names” mentioned in the intelligence report, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also testified before the commission that he was aware of intelligence on parliamentarians linked to foreign interference.

Targeted Communities

The commission’s public consultations received more than 200 written submissions and 624 questionnaire responses. Additionally, the commission reported holding consultation meetings with 105 individual members of diaspora communities. A number of communities highlighted in the report as being frequent targets of Chinese interference include Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, and immigrants from Hong Kong.

The commission received submissions calling for investigations into those who target Falun Gong and its practitioners in Canada, including individuals and organizations acting as proxies for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since the late 1990s, the CCP has waged a brutal persecution campaign against Falun Gong, affecting tens of millions of adherents. Some submissions urged Canada to take proactive measures against those undermining the practice.

Amid the Chinese regime’s religious and ethnic suppression of Tibetans and Uyghurs, as well as its increasing repression of democracy in Hong Kong, submissions to the commission urged the Canadian government to create immigration pathways for individuals from Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, and to expand humanitarian and family reunification options.

Others recommended investigating organizations that “either directly or indirectly, support, excuse, gloss over, and whitewash foreign governments who are human rights violators.” There were also calls for Canada to track and map transnational repression activities to better understand and counter such actions, as well as identify local entities with ties to the Chinese consulate, including businesses that could be subject to CCP manipulation.

In its interim report published last May, the commission said that the targeting and manipulation of diaspora communities is “one of the primary ways” in which countries carry out foreign interference in Canada. The report noted that, in China’s case, the CCP has allocated “a budget in the billions” to its United Front Work Department, a key entity involved in foreign interference, for operations aimed at controlling and influencing the Chinese diaspora, shaping international opinion, and pressuring politicians to support Beijing’s policies.

The Foreign Interference Commission is scheduled to deliver its final report at the end of January.

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.