MPs Vote Unanimously to Investigate Chinese Hacking of Parliamentarians

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, speaks to reporters at a press conference in Mississauga, Ont., on Feb. 22, 2024. (Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times)

MPs agreed unanimously on May 9 to investigate China’s cyberattacks against parliamentarians through a House of Commons committee.

The motion for the investigation was initiated by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who raised a question of privilege on April 29. He revealed that day that he and 17 other parliamentarians were targeted in 2021 by a Beijing-backed hacker group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31).

The cyberattack on Canadian parliamentarians was part of APT31’s broader hacking campaign against members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), Mr. Genuis told the House of Commons on April 29. IPAC is an international group of cross-party legislators working to more effectively tackle the threat of Beijing.

The APT31 attacks gained public attention after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on March 25, charging seven Chinese nationals linked to the hacker group. The indictment revealed that the group had spent approximately 14 years targeting critics of the Chinese regime, both in the U.S. and abroad, as well as businesses and political figures, with the goal of furthering Beijing’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.

Mr. Genuis, along with Liberal MP John McKay, also a co-chair of IPAC, raised concerns in an April 29 statement. They noted that despite warnings from U.S. intelligence authorities about APT31’s attacks dating back to 2022, the Canadian government did not inform the affected parliamentarians of the threat.

“Canadian legislators should have been informed as soon as possible, especially given the progressive nature of this attack,” the MPs wrote. “Steps should be taken to ensure legislators are informed of attacks or potential attacks against them in the future, and to sanction those responsible for this attack.”

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On May 8, House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled that Mr. Genuis’s concern constituted a question of privilege. This privilege allows MPs to raise concerns about their parliamentary work being obstructed, prompting immediate consideration in the House of Commons. Mr. Genuis’s motion, now adopted, will be investigated by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

Mr. Fergus pointed out that Mr. Genuis compared his situation to the question of privilege involving former Chinese consulate officer Wei Zhao’s intimidation campaign against Tory MP Michael Chong.

Targeting Personal Email

In an April 30 statement to The Epoch Times, Mathieu Gravel, spokesperson for the House of Commons Speaker’s Office, said the administration had “determined that the risk-mitigation measures in place had successfully prevented any attack,” adding that “There were no cybersecurity impacts to any Members or their communications.”

Mr. Genuis has disputed the claim that parliamentarians were unaffected, pointing out that his personal email was targeted. He told The Epoch Times that he received this information from IPAC and that is was collected by the FBI.

“Parliamentarians still need to know about targeted threats against them, even when those threats do not succeed. If someone tries to hurt me but their attempts are thwarted, I would still like to know I have been targeted in order to plan to protect myself going forward,” he said in the House of Commons on May 1.

“Moreover, your office is not at all able to say that these attacks were thwarted, because they evidently targeted members on both parliamentary and non-parliamentary emails.”

‘Chilling Effect’

During the May 9 House of Commons debate, several MPs among the 18 targeted by APT31 voiced their concerns about the broader impacts of the Chinese cyberattacks on Canadians.

Conservative MP Tom Kmiec said these attacks on parliamentarians directly impact diaspora groups in Canada who have fled the Chinese regime.

“This has a chilling effect on the diaspora groups in Canada in their interactions with members of parliament. So it’s a direct impact on our parliamentary duties and our parliamentary privileges to ensure we can do this work on behalf of Canadians,” he said.

Fellow Tory MP James Bezan, the party’s national defence critic, echoed the sentiment, noting that the 18 parliamentarians were targeted not only for their involvement in IPAC but also for their crucial roles in engaging with diaspora communities in Canada. He highlighted that they frequently handle emails from diaspora groups containing “sensitive information” related to human rights repression by the Chinese communist regime, the Russian Federation, and Iran.

“Those diaspora communities send us emails, and if this APT31 hack had been successful, that sensitive information of the diaspora communities, of individuals who have come to Canada seeking asylum, and now call Canada home, their identities could have been jeopardized and could have been even more targeted,” he said.

“This is not just an attack on our parliamentary privilege, not just an attack on us as parliamentarians, but an attack on all Canadians in our democratic institutions because we do have dictatorships and authoritarian regimes like the People’s Republic of China that are trying to undermine our democratic institutions and target Chinese nationals right here in Canada.”

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.