Michael Taube: After the Latest Michael Chong Revelations, Will Ottawa Take Action Against Beijing?

Commentary

There’s a new revelation in Conservative MP Michael Chong’s ongoing saga with China. Maybe it will finally lead the federal government to take action against this communist regime.

In early May, Globe and Mail investigative journalists Robert Fife and Steven Chase published contents of an eyebrow-raising July 20, 2021, Canadian Security Intelligence Service report. It revealed that Canada was regarded as a “high-priority target” by China, which had used “incentives and punishment” to gain an advantage that was “expected to continue and increase over time.” CSIS also mentioned that a Ministry of State Security officer had attempted to obtain information about an MP’s relatives “who may be located in the PRC, for further potential sanctions.” This strategy was “almost certainly meant to make an example of this MP and deter others from taking anti-PRC positions.”

The MP wasn’t named in the report, but Fife and Chase unearthed this information. “A national-security source, whom The Globe is not naming because they risk prosecution under the Security of Information Act, said the MP targeted was Conservative MP Michael Chong and that Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat in Canada, was working on this matter,” they wrote on May 1.

Chong’s contentious relationship with China has been covered extensively by the Canadian and international media. Beijing sanctioned the Conservative foreign affairs critic in March 2021 for speaking out against China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslims. Chong, vice-chair of the Special Committee on the Canada–People’s Republic of China Relationship, tweeted/posted he would wear it as a “badge of honour.”

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked about it, he tried to deflect attention from his government. “We asked what happened to that information, was it ever briefed up out of CSIS? It was not,” he told the media on May 3. “CSIS made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed (to) be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern.”

Chong quickly took matters into his own hands. “I have just been informed by the national security adviser [Jody Thomas] that the CSIS intelligence assessment of July 20, 2021, was sent by CSIS to the relevant departments and to the national security adviser in the PCO,” he told the House of Commons on May 4, “This report contained information that I and other MPs were being targeted by the PRC. This contradicts what the Prime Minister said yesterday.”

Reporters went back to Trudeau for further comment. “I’m not going to go into details on that,” he said. “I shared the best information I had at the time both to Chong and to Canadians.”

Alas, his “best information” clearly wasn’t all that good.

The latest revelation came on Aug. 9 when Global Affairs Canada (GAC) announced in a press release that there was an “information operation targeting Michael Chong” on the Chinese social media platform WeChat. “Between May 4 and 13, 2023, a coordinated network of WeChat’s news accounts featured, shared and amplified a large volume of false or misleading narratives about Mr. Chong,” GAC said. “Most of the activity was targeted at spreading false narratives about his identity, including commentary and claims about his background, political stances and family’s heritage.”

GAC’s assessment was that “nothing observed represents a threat to the safety of Mr. Chong or his family.” While it’s good to hear this, the fact that it occurred in the first place is troubling. It’s also important to note the WeChat false information campaign started on the same day Chong revealed to Parliament he was being targeted by China.

“This is another serious example of the communist government in Beijing attempting to interfere in our democracy by targeting elected officials,” he told The Epoch Times in an Aug. 9 email statement.

How many more revelations about Chong, or new revelations about other Canadian MPs, will it take before Ottawa recognizes it has to do something about China?

The answer isn’t to waste more time appointing a new independent special rapporteur. The federal government has apparently tried, according to the National Post, with “at least half a dozen current or retired judges having declined the offer.” After the first officeholder, former governor general David Johnston, turned out to be an unmitigated disaster and resigned, it’s not surprising that people are avoiding it like the plague. It’s a meaningless and virtually powerless role that does nothing to stop foreign interference in our election process from China—or any other totalitarian regime, for that matter.

If the government cares a whit about Canada’s safety and security, it needs to do two things. Break all political, economic, and diplomatic ties with China, and go after pro-Beijing groups targeting our country. It will take time, effort and plenty of money, but it’s the only way to bring this matter to a close.

Your move, prime minister.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.