Conservative MP Michael Cooper is demanding the resumption of a House of Commons committee probing foreign interference by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) following revelations of its latest targeting of Tory MP Michael Chong.
Mr. Cooper’s call for continued investigation received support from a number of his parliamentary colleagues.
Public Inquiry
Commenting on Global Affairs Canada’s statement, Mr. Chong said while he appreciated the government’s prompt response in informing him of the disinformation campaign against him, more needs to be done to address the CCP’s interference in Canada.“This is another serious example of the communist government in Beijing attempting to interfere in our democracy by targeting elected officials,” Mr. Chong told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Aug. 9.
“This situation also again proves that we need an open, independent public inquiry into foreign interference and we need it now.”
Mr. Chong, the Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic, has made repeated calls for a public inquiry into Chinese interference in Canada.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan also reiterated the call for a public inquiry in response to the latest revelation of the CCP’s threat.
“We’re learning more information about how MP Michael Chong is being targeted. And so this all speaks to the absolute urgent action that is required to tackle the whole foreign interference situation. The NDP has called for and pushed for an independent public inquiry,” she told NTD, sister company to The Epoch Times, on Aug. 11.
Ms. Kwan revealed in June that her outspoken criticism of the CCP’s human rights abuses has made her an “evergreen” target of the Chinese regime—a revelation that came after she was briefed by CSIS just a week earlier.
Despite calls from the opposition, critics, and numerous rights advocacy groups over the past few months for a public inquiry into China’s foreign interference, little progress has been made on the launch of a new one.
Dominic LeBlanc, who was recently appointed federal public safety minister, said last month that calling a judicial inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s elections by the Beijing regime is “a complicated undertaking.” He also denied any holdup in getting an investigation underway.
Mr. LeBlanc told reporters on July 17 he has been consulting all opposition party leaders to determine how to proceed investigating allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections ever since former governor general David Johnston stepped down as special rapporteur on foreign election interference.
Mr. Johnston was appointed to that role in March by the prime minister amid mounting pressure to call a public inquiry and after a series of media reports that Beijing had interfered in the past two federal elections via means such as the funding of a clandestine network of 11 Toronto-area candidates. Mr. Johnston resigned shortly after delivering his first report in May in which he advised against holding an inquiry.
The PROC convened its most recent meeting on June 20 to address the matter of China’s threats against Mr. Chong and his family in Hong Kong, just before the start of the parliament’s summer recess.
