QUESTION PERIOD — Foreign Affairs
Foreign Interference
May 2, 2023
I would like the government leader to focus on today’s candle, and we’ll worry about Rapporteur Johnston for another time.
Back to MP Michael Chong, he and his family were targeted by the Beijing regime because he moved a motion in the House of Commons recognizing the Uighur genocide. A similar motion, sadly enough — it was a sad day in this institution when Trudeau-appointed senators defeated that motion.
Now, if Prime Minister Trudeau did not take action to protect Michael Chong because he is a Conservative and because of partisan reasons, that’s shameful. If it’s because of utter incompetence — as he hasn’t shown any ability to protect Canadians from foreign interference — that’s just as shameful.
Now that the Prime Minister has been called out by the media with concrete information, what does he do, colleagues? He calls for another investigation where now that everyone has resigned from the Trudeau Foundation, he is running out of people he can appoint to investigate all of his various failures. Who is he going to appoint now to investigate this particular failure? Will it be his mother or his brother? Or maybe, colleagues, he might appoint himself. I can just see it now: What did I know? When did I know it? Who told me? Why didn’t I do something about it?
Well, I didn’t hear a question, but —
Will there be any point in investigating?
First of all, the information that was released was, as you said, a confidential Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, document. It’s certainly up to CSIS, and only CSIS, to decide what confidential information should be shared. That’s why the Prime Minister asked David Vigneault, the head of CSIS, to look into this matter.
Once again, these issues are complicated, they are serious and the government is dealing with them in a responsible way.
They are very serious and they are endless. It seems like information is rolling out case after case about the Prime Minister himself neglecting to come clean and protect Canadians when it comes to foreign interference.
Contrary, again, to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s claim that all the illegal Beijing police stations in Canada have been shut down, yesterday we found out that’s not the case. We actually now have emboldened agents on behalf of Beijing who are coming out publicly stating they are still operating right here in our country in Montreal.
My question, Senator Gold, is a very simple one: When will those illegal police stations be shut down? When will the diplomat responsible for targeting Michael Chong and his family be expelled from our country? When will your government agree to a public inquiry when it comes to foreign interference? When will your government allow for a registry to be put in place, once and for all, identifying and registering agents who are interfering in our country? When will your government get serious about foreign interference by protecting Canadians who are being intimidated? When are we going to get action other than just rhetoric?
The government has taken and is taking action. As the news has reported, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, continues its investigations into the allegations that have been made in the press and will continue to investigate them. Decisions will be taken and will be made public when they are. It is simply not the case that the government is not taking the proper steps to protect us from foreign interference.
I have responded to this question time and time again. They are factual responses, not rhetoric.
