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The Chinese Communist Party is threatening Canadian democracy by influencing politicians, business leaders, and community influencers, and suppressing those who speak out against China, says a former national director of the RCMP’s proceeds-of-crime program.

 “The PRC government, Chinese Communist Party, is the biggest transnational organized crime group ever seen in the world today, bar none,” former RCMP investigator and chief anti-money laundering officer Garry Clement said during a Dec. 6 forum event at Toronto City Hall. Clement was joined by a panel of experts who spoke about foreign interference and transnational repression in Canada by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Clement told the audience that the CCP directs diaspora communities, cultural groups, and business chambers abroad, while monitoring, suppressing, and intimidating dissidents who speak out against China. This is going on in Canada “on a daily basis,” he noted.

 The CCP’s United Front Work Department works to shape narratives in Canadian society and overseas Chinese communities by co-opting elites, business leaders, community influencers, language schools, and media outlets, Clement said.

 Public Safety Canada says in a note on its website that the United Front is the CCP’s “primary foreign interference tool.” Washington-based think tank Jamestown Foundation adds that the agency engages in overseas political influence, infiltration, and espionage for the CCP.

When it comes to influencing Canada’s politicians and elites, Clement said that the fact that several high-ranking Canadian politicians have worked at the Canada China Business Council—which he said is involved in suppressing Chinese dissidents in Canada—at the end of their careers indicates they have been influenced by elite capture.

 

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The news of Ma’s floor-crossing came Thursday evening, sending shockwaves through the freshly-abandoned halls of Parliament Hill, as MPs prepared to head home to spend Christmas with their families.

The defection moves the Mark Carney Liberals just one seat away from a majority government — and comes one month after Acadie-Annapolis MP Chris d’Entremont left the Tories for the Liberals.

Ma won the suburban Toronto riding of Markham-Unionville for the Conservatives — a riding embroiled in controversy after Liberal incumbent Paul Chiang dropped out of the race after remarking to Chinese-language media that Don Valley North Conservative Candidate abd Joe Tay should be turned over to Chinese officials in order to collect the bounty on his head.