Previously unreported details of how Ottawa dealt with illegal Chinese police stations have been disclosed at the Foreign Interference Commission, showing that Beijing’s assurance that it had closed the stations wasn’t necessarily the case.
A summary of government intelligence and diplomatic information on covert Chinese overseas police stations was entered as evidence on Oct. 3 at the federal commission of inquiry, which is currently examining Ottawa’s capacity to counter foreign interference.
RCMP officials testified at the inquiry on Oct. 3. Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn declined to say whether the national police service was aware of the presence of the stations before the Safeguard Defenders report.
A senior GAC official responsible for Asia called the Chinese ambassador to Canada on Oct. 7, 2022, to protest the presence of the stations and requested they be shut down. This was followed by a hand-delivered formal diplomatic note on Oct. 28 that year requesting that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) provide an explanation on the stations and their intended purposes.
CSIS also disseminated intelligence products on the topic and assessed that the stations served in part to “collect intelligence and monitor former PRC residents living in Canada as part of the PRC’s broader transnational anti-corruption, repression and repatriation campaign.”
The stations were “established around the world by sub-national PRC authorities, including police forces, to ostensibly provide services to diaspora communities abroad,” such as to renew driver’s licences and assist Chinese tourists abroad, the government summary says. This still constitutes a violation of Canadian sovereignty regardless of the intention, it adds.
Chinese Embassy Says Centres Closed
Following GAC’s diplomatic communication with the PRC in October 2022, it received formal notification from the Chinese Embassy in late November 2022 that “what they referred to as ‘overseas Chinese service centres’ were no longer in operation,” says the summary.The government summary said the RRM began to refer to the centres as “liaison stations” since they offered services beyond what is related to policing.
Asked by a commission counsel on Oct. 3 to describe what this “decisive action” entailed, Deputy Commissioner Flynn said it related to a “decision to immediately respond, deploy resources to the community, to the locations, conduct the neighbourhood inquiries, interview individuals, and the subsequent follow-up investigation that occurred.”
Flynn declined to comment on whether the Chinese police stations are still operating. “I’m not going to speak to that,” he said. “That would form part of what we are currently investigating as part of our ongoing investigative effort.”
Quebec Investigations
Aside from posting uniformed RCMP officers near the Chinese police stations, in March 2023 the RCMP in Quebec also took the unusual step of disclosing an active investigation into two community organizations in the Montreal area suspected of hosting Chinese police stations.“Why were these overseas Chinese police stations handled with such diplomacy?” he said.
Flynn rejected the premise of the question about RCMP efforts being “diplomatic” and instead called them a “law enforcement investigation into a very serious matter impacting the Chinese community.”
“The focus is on building the trust with the victims of the criminal activity that we are investigating,” he said. Flynn said the RCMP also uses overt approaches when dealing with groups like the Hells Angels.
RCMP spokesperson Sergeant Charles Poirier told The Epoch Times at the time the initiative was meant to “demystify” what foreign interference looks like in the Chinese community. Poirier said the RCMP’s investigation into the matter are complicated by cultural and language barriers and a “climate of terror that prevails.”