A decision has been made in Ottawa and, predictably, the political actors are playing the same cards they always do.
I’m talking about allegations involving foreign interference in Canadian elections, and more to the point, about how the Chinese insert themselves into this kind of stuff any time they get a chance.
By the way, when I refer to the Chinese, I’m speaking about the Communist Party of China, or CPC. Not the Chinese people.
Justin Trudeau announced today that that a parliamentary committee, one with access to top-secret intelligence, will look into this affair.
Cue the music. Play the parts.
The Liberals have already done their bit by, well, doing nothing and making it look like they’d prefer to avoid the whole thing altogether if they could. But I guess they can’t, and hence the committee.
The Tories hit their marks by denouncing the whole thing in advance, no matter what the Liberals do or don’t do. They’re going to hammer and tong against Trudeau, no matter what.
“That’s a trick and that’s a trap,” thunders Conservative leader Pierre Polievre, claiming the Liberals want to invite opposition members to the committee so that they’d have to take the oath of silence regarding intelligence information. To Polievre, that smacks of a Liberal plot to silence his members. Pretty Machiavellian stuff, but that’s the Conservatives, who only think of such machinations because that’s what they would probably do themselves.
And then there’s Jagmeet Singh, jumping up and down, seemingly denouncing the government at every turn while propping it up until 2025, but always threatening to pull the support plug if the Liberals don’t do things his way, which he’s kind of unsure about himself, but will jump up and down anyway in an attempt to appear relevant.
Some people may ask why the Chinese would want anything to do with our elections in the first place, since they’re democracy-adverse and wouldn’t know what to do with a legitimate vote if it landed in their lap. The truth is, unburdened by democracy themselves, the Chinese are free and clear to do whatever the hell they want, and if that’s interfering in Canadian elections, then they’re just going to go ahead and do it. It’s important to note that they do this kind of thing in all “western” nations, so we shouldn’t feel particularly special. The Russians and the Iranians do it as well, so our committee investigation will hopefully look at the actions of those nations as well.
The Chinese do what we want our children to do in civics class in high school. They learn about the structure and systems of our democracy, not just how the government works but how political parties work as well. They learn all about nomination meetings, donations, influence, and tactics and set out to subvert in such a way as to gain advantage. And what advantage? The election of an MP that is favourable to China, or the election of an MP that owes China for their election in the first place.
Much of this subversion is done in the Chinese-Canadian communities here in Canada, particularly in places like Vancouver and Toronto, home to a large number of Chinese diaspora. Organizing and mobilizing large numbers of people can have an influence not just in general elections, but also in party nomination battles that determine who will carry the party banner in an election campaign.
How about organizing busloads of Chinese-Canadian voters into another riding to support a specific candidate in a party nomination vote? That trick has been around for a long time, but then authorities began to crack down on that sort of thing. But the Chinese don’t care, because they’re not terribly worried about any trouble arising from their activities, other than being aggravated at being caught.
What about these Chinese “police stations” that have popped up in major Canadian urban centres. The Chinese claim that these are services China provides to its citizens abroad. The RCMP and CSIS are of the opinion that these so-called stations are actually a means to controlling and manipulating Chinese-Canadians by using their relatives back home in China as leverage.
It’s necessary that we seriously look into this, not just with China, but with Russia and Iran as well. These nations view us as an enemy, and we’d be wise to be wary of them. All three are dictatorships that repress their own populations, not just at home, but abroad as well.
In 2016, Donald Trump told one of his rallies that if Russia had the Hilary Clinton emails, they should please, please release them.
They did.
The damage done, rightly or wrongly, was pivotal to the election of the most controversial and polarizing political figure in recent American history. It swayed an election, and made a dangerous man president.
We want to make sure such a thing can’t happen here.
So, to Justin Trudeau? It took you long enough. To Pierre Polievre? Stop being so predictably anti-Trudeau and maybe gain traction by being a real leader doing and saying responsible real leader things. And somebody please tell Jagmeet to stop jumping up and down.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 