The evidence from two secret witnesses with first-hand knowledge about China meddling in Canada’s democracy will be recorded via affidavits, the Hogue Commission said in a decision that notes the information will be sealed with the exception of summaries produced for public release.
One of the witnesses, identified only as “Person B,” provided commission counsel with “insight into how the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) co-opts and leverages some Chinese Canadian community associations and politicians of Chinese origin,” Hogue wrote.
The information provided by Person B was “often first-hand, and other times based on second-hand information,” she said.
Person B told the Foreign Interference Commission they fear “serious repercussions” if their identity is revealed, because the United Front Work Department (UFWD) has infiltrated some Chinese Canadian community organizations. UFWD is an arm of Beijing used to orchestrate foreign meddling.
Person B said if identified they could lose their job, be excluded from the community, and face retribution from the PRC, Hogue wrote in her decision.
Another witness, identified as “Person C,” also provided to the commission “first-hand information about foreign interference activities by the PRC” and expressed fear of retaliation.
If Person B and C present their evidence in the form of affidavits, the records would be sealed for 99 years as a security precaution, the commissioner said.
The issue of politicians being under foreign influence or colluding with hostile states has been a hot topic for the past two years.
The first intelligence leak, reported by Global News in late 2022, spoke of a Toronto network of PRC interference in the 2019 election, with 11 candidates being affected. The issue percolated in June with a national security watchdog report saying some lawmakers have been “witting” participants in some foreign meddling efforts.
The commission was tasked by the House of Commons to probe the matter, but later said it wouldn’t release any names of implicated politicians, citing national security and due process concerns.
Even if the affidavits are sealed for 99 years, it would still provide “access to the underlying material eventually for historical purposes, once the real risk to an important public interest will have lapsed,” Hogue said.
The commissioner said she weighed different options to receive the secret witnesses’ evidence, including by voice only, but she ultimately concluded this was not possible given the information is primarily first-hand.
“Any public disclosure of this evidence would give rise to a very significant risk – if not inevitability – that the actual identity of Person B or Person C would become known to others who were involved in the events in question,” she wrote. “This would include individuals who may be acting at the behest of the PRC.”
The commission said it will release public summaries of the affidavits “in due course.”
The documents include those referred to during commission interviews with witnesses, affidavits, and interview summaries with individuals who did not testify, as well as French translated versions of documents already available. There are also documents produced by the government which were not entered as evidence during the public hearings.
Commissioner Hogue is expected to file her final report by year’s end. Her interim report released in May related to foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. Hogue concluded foreign interference took place but did not impact the overall results, although individual ridings could have been impacted.
