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The syndrome of elections being stolen or altered by nefarious foreign governments is apparently contagious, as now up in Canada, the Trudeau Liberals and all four opposition parties in the House of Commons, are similarly convinced that evil interests abroad are trying to worm their way into the country’s national affairs! [1]
The news broke on February 17 of this year in an article written by senior Parliamentary reporters Robert Fife and Steven Chase which outlined how “both secret and top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents” leaked to them “illustrate how an orchestrated machine was operating in Canada with two primary aims: to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned in 2021, and that certain Conservative candidates identified by China were defeated.” [2]
Importantly, the Chinese government would organize disinformation campaigns in proxies connected to Chinese connected organizations in districts with large Chinese-Canadian communities. [3]
While opinions may vary in terms of whether or not Prime Minister Trudeau acted responsibly, hardly anyone in mainstream media circles seems to question the claim that the Chinese intend to invest resources in a Canada where politicians range from hating them, to really, really hating them!
As it stands right now, a Chinese diplomat, Zhao Wei, was expelled from Canada on the grounds that an intelligence report accused him of trying to target and threaten a Conservative MP critical of China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority. Beijing retorted by expelling a Canadian diplomat.[4]
A high profile academic, author and statesman, and the former Governor General, David Johnston was tasked by Trudeau to act as the Special Rapporteur looking into reports of foreign interference in Canadian elections. But in a report he wrote in late May, he said that no public inquest would be called, pointing to information that would have to be kept secret. He also suggested among other things that much of the intelligence was misconstrued by media having seen the broader context. [5]
But opposition parties not only demanded a public inquiry, they are also calling for Johnston to step down in favour of a candidate with less of a supposed conflict of interest with the prime minister. [6]
This Chinagate scenario is clearly not going away. But is it actually, like Russiagate in the U.S., ultimately a red herring? This issue of a new breed of artificially generated discord with rival powers will be the focus of this week’s Global Research News Hour.
In our first half hour, we interview Yves Engler, prominent critic of Canadian Foreign Affairs, about the merits behind the accusations, as well as the view of other countries appearing to interfere in the country’s elections and the role, in fact of Canada doing to other countries what it would not tolerate being done to itself.
This interview is followed by an interview with Aidan Jonah, editor-in-chief of the recent investigative journalist site The Canada Files.
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Yves Engler is one of Canada’s foremost Canadian foreign policy critics and dissidents. He is the author of ten books on Canadian foreign policy including Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People’s History of the Canadian Military (2021) and House of Cards: Justin Trudeau’s Foreign Policy (2020). His articles have appeared at globalresearch.ca, rabble.ca, canadiandimension.com, and on his own site yvesengler.com.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news site founded in 2019. He has written about Canadian imperialism, federal politics, and left-wing resistance to colonialism across the world. The site is www.thecanadafiles.com.
(Global Research News Hour episode 394)
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
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Notes:
- https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/06/china-canada-election-interference-trudeau-00085751
- Robert Fife and Steven Chase (Feb. 22, 2023), ‘CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence Canada’s 2021 election’, The Globe and Mail; https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-china-influence-2021-federal-election-csis-documents/
- ibid;
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-canada-diplomats-expel-1.6836906
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/five-things-david-johnston-1.6852184
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-passes-motion-david-johnston-step-down-1.6861009
