Foreign interference in our affairs isn’t confined to China and it doesn’t happen only during federal elections.
Probing and exposing what China allegedly did to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections is important, but the problems don’t end there.
Nor is China the only bad actor.
Other countries such as Russia and Iran are frequently cited by security experts as being involved in similar subversive activities.
Testifying before the Commons ethics committee last August, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former chief of the Asia-Pacific desk at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, outlined the scope of the problem:
“There are elected officials at all levels, whether it’s municipal, provincial or federal, who are being paid by foreign governments and who are not necessarily acting in the interests of Canada,” he said.
“It’s not something new. Foreign agencies have always tried to recruit elected officials. It’s not that hard because politicians don’t always listen to what CSIS tells them, or they simply disregard the information, because doing so is to their personal benefit.
“What we know, for sure, is that we have various foreign countries that have succeeded in recruiting elected officials — municipal, provincial or federal — and were capable of influence in this way.”
It’s not just politicians who are being targeted. Government officials are as well.
In addition, foreign dictatorships pressure ordinary Canadians with family ties to their countries of origin to do their bidding, or risk harm coming to themselves, their families in Canada or the families they left behind to come to Canada.
Investigating these allegations isn’t racism.
The vast majority of people who emigrate to Canada from countries such as China, Russia and Iran are law-abiding and come here to build a better life for themselves and their families.
It’s important that our security, intelligence and police forces are able to protect them from being pressured into illegal acts by the dictatorships they fled, which doesn’t always happen today.
What is needed is a “whole-of-government” approach to combating foreign interference, where all levels of government — federal, provincial and municipal — all security and intelligence forces and all police forces — federal, provincial and municipal — work together to thwart foreign interference in our way of life 365 days a year.
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