Even though it has been welcomed in:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he hasn’t received any information on federal election candidates who allegedly received funds from China in the 2019 federal election.
“I do not have any information, nor have I been briefed on any federal candidates receiving any money from China,” he told a Global News reporter on Sunday in Tunisia.
His response stems from a Global News report — which appeared on November 7 — about an alleged Chinese interference effort that Canadian intelligence officials warned Trudeau about, beginning last January.
**
Opposition MPs pressed Canadian intelligence officials — often unsuccessfully — to share more information during a Thursday meeting of a Commons committee studying foreign election interference.
The House of Commons standing committee on procedure and House affairs has been delving into a story by Global News that reported the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Chinese efforts to interfere in the 2019 election. According to sources cited in the story, interference reportedly included Chinese government funding of at least 11 candidates.
On Thursday, witnesses from CSIS, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) — Canada's foreign signals intelligence agency — and the RCMP told MPs on the committee they could only provide them with a non-classified briefing and could not comment on operational specifics.
"Where is the transparency? Where is the sunlight?" asked Conservative MP Michael Cooper.
This election:
So the PRC Consul in Toronto threw his weight behind at least one of Mary Ng's election campaigns. And the CCP-echoing Chan was deployed to chair her campaign in more than one election.
— Andrew Scheidl 🇺🇦 (@AndrewScheidl) February 13, 2023
PMO was warned, but Trudeau appears to have taken no action. https://t.co/bxCu0Asa6W
This Mary Ng:
Trade Minister Mary Ng has signed a “conflict of interest screen” pledging to never award another sole sourced contract to a longtime friend and CBC-TV pundit. The written pledge followed testimony at the Commons ethics committee that rated contracts for Amanda Alvaro as unusual: “The Ethics Commissioner and I have agreed.”
**
Trade Minister Mary Ng will not repay the cost of contracts improperly awarded to a personal friend and CBC pundit. The payments for media coaching were the equivalent of more than $2,800 an hour: “Do you think taxpayers should be reimbursed?”
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has a dossier on Mr. Chan that contains information on his activities in the 2019 and 2021 federal election campaigns and meetings with suspected Chinese intelligence operatives, according to the two security sources. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources, who risk prosecution under the Security of Information Act.
Mr. Chan, now deputy mayor of the city of Markham, told The Globe that he is a loyal Canadian and accused CSIS of character assassination, saying they never once interviewed him about his alleged involvement with the Chinese consulate. ...
CSIS has observed Mr. Chan meeting in the past years with Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei, whom one source describes as a “suspected intelligence actor,” and Beijing’s former vice-consul-general Zhuang Yaodong. CSIS believes Mr. Zhuang handled security files out of the Toronto consulate, the source said. Mr. Zhao’s code-name for Mr. Chan is “The Minister,” the source said.
In 2019, Mr. Chan had a number of meetings with Mr. Zhao that were described in a CSIS 2020 briefing package as “clandestine in nature” and were allegedly election-related, the source said. In that same year, CSIS observed Mr. Chan and an associate meeting with Mr. Zhao and Mr. Zhuang at a Chinese restaurant.
Beijing can order you back to class?
Interesting:
Immigration data suggest tens of thousands of Chinese students in Canada may have returned to China during the pandemic.
But now Canadian universities and officials say they are getting ready to welcome some back, after the Chinese government ordered students taking online classes with foreign universities to return overseas.
The Chinese Ministry of Education said in a directive dated Jan. 28 that students studying online in China would have to return to foreign campuses this spring semester, or their qualifications would not be recognized in the Chinese job market.
The Chinese Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange, which endorses foreign qualifications, “will no longer provide degree credential services” for students using foreign remote learning, the statement said.
That doesn't at all sound suspicious!
A balloon eventually shot down was carrying spy equipment:
The Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States for days before being shot down could monitor communications signals, a U.S. official says.
“High resolution imagery from U-2 flybys revealed that the high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations,” an official with the State Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Epoch Times.
“The high altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons. It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications. It was equipped with solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors,” the official added.
Since this balloon was shot down (eventually) a series of other balloons (or distractions, as some might say) have been shot down in order to prove to the every-wary public that the government is serious about espionage and other threats.
Incredulous, really.
Whatever China's motives may be, these balloon incursions (for lack of a better term) prove that the North American authorities are unwilling and - in Canada's case - unable to keep our airspace secure.
Justin wouldn't want to upset his bosses, anyway:
What an absolute clown. 🤡 Wow. pic.twitter.com/Ki42qrQRVw
— Canada Proud (@WeAreCanProud) February 9, 2023
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