Amid Committee Probe, Some MPs Hesitant to Disclose Cases of Colleagues Targeted by Foreign Interference

Conservative MP for St. Albert-Edmonton Michael Cooper rises during question period in Ottawa on April 28, 2023. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Liberal and NDP MPs have raised concerns about a new motion tabled by Conservatives in committee seeking documents related to threats by foreign actors faced by elected officials, saying it could draw unwanted attention to them.

Conservative MP Michael Cooper tabled a new motion on May 18 in the House of Commons Standing Committee for Procedure and House Affairs (PROC), as part of the committee’s unanimous mandate received from the House to investigate threats by Beijing faced by MP Michael Chong.

Cooper’s motion states the government should provide the committee with the 2021 assessment from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that mentions Chinese regime activities against MPs. The Globe and Mail reported on the leak of the document on May 1, which triggered a chain of events.

A national security source told the Globe that Chong had been specifically targeted. The prime minister and the minister of public safety say they were never briefed on the matter, even though the assessment had been received by the Privy Council Office (PCO), whose core function is to advise the prime minister.

Cooper’s motion also seeks to obtain all the records related to the distribution of the CSIS assessment to PCO and other departments. He also wants the parliamentary law clerk to receive unredacted versions of the documents and apply redactions he judges are warranted.

Cooper said Chong, MPs, and Canadians deserve to know how the government knew about the activities of Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei against Chong, yet didn’t inform him. Zhao, who also reportedly spied on Chinese dissidents in Canada, was declared persona non grata on May 8.

NDP MP Rachel Blaney, who typically has the swing vote on the committee with the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois usually siding together on the foreign interference issue, expressed support for increasing accountability, but she raised some concerns.

“I appreciate that in the motion [Cooper] said the member from Wellington-Halton Hills [Chong] and other members. I think it’s very clear that one of those other members is somebody that I also have partnership with in our caucus,” said Blaney.

She said there needs to be a balance between accountability and protecting national security, “because we don’t want any of these people that have already faced challenges to be put in an uncomfortable position.”

Blaney was probably referring to NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who spoke with the Globe and Mail last week about CSIS recently reaching out to brief her.

“I hope in the in-person meeting that they will disclose what they have learned, when they learned it, and what it means in practical terms,” Kwan said after meeting with CSIS virtually as she currently has COVID-19. No sensitive information was shared due to communications not being secure, the Globe reported.

Kwan, like Chong, has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese regime, but unlike Chong, she does not have any family members in Hong Kong or China, she told the Globe.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after the Globe story broke on May 1 that he told CSIS to brief MPs on threat information even if it doesn’t meet a typical threshold.

Liberal MP Sherry Romanado echoed MP Blaney’s concerns about naming other MPs who have been targeted by Beijing and “who may not want their names out there, for that kind of information to get out.”

“We have a duty also to respect the privacy of some of these MPs who may also be concerned about having their names as possible targets,” she said.

The meeting was adjourned after Romanado spoke, and no vote was held on Cooper’s motion.

A previous motion tabled by Cooper to call a number of witnesses to committee on the Chong affair, including Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu, was adopted by the committee on May 16.