Some countries are messing with our democracy. Michael Harris writes:
Canadian democracy has been weakened this past week by a signal failure of transparency, a dire error of priorities. On an issue of monumental importance, the public was informationally dealt out.
What makes that harder to take is that the Trudeau government never misses an opportunity to take a bow for its openness in governance. The PM talks the talk, but sometimes doesn’t walk the walk.
Thanks to the work of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), Canadians have learned that some Members of Parliament have been helping foreign actors to interfere in this country’s politics and elections.
The NSICOP report released on June 3 said that certain elected officials “began wittingly assisting foreign state actors soon after their election.” The key word is “wittingly.”
The committee members said that they had seen intelligence suggesting that some MPs worked to influence colleagues on behalf of India, and that they had provided confidential information to officials with the Indian government.
In one case cited in the report, that relied on information from CSIS, a then-sitting MP had a relationship with a foreign intelligence officer.
According to the report, the MP even tried to arrange a meeting with a senior foreign intelligence officer in a foreign country.
Several counties are facing this kind of threat. But if we don't know who is working for these countries -- and not for us -- they represent a clear and present danger. And unless we know who they are, we can't vote them out.
Image: Radio Canada
13 comments:
So the same spy vrs. spy espionage game that has been on since the 60s' is still on?
With different players?
Oh my Gerta Munsinger!!
Who could have possibly predicted that being in NATO and following the roaring US here and there might get a target on our back .
Harpers' stand down from peacekeeping and promotion to active duty AFTER full installation in afghanistan might not have been the best move either. Tho at the time (or before or after) our minister of defense was an immigrant x-former air force officer with a vow of service and allegiance to his former country rather than this one.
Never raised an eyebrow.
Oh my Greta Munsinger again.
The real story here might be
How if the cat has kittens it is JTs fault.Or the endless lack of comprehensive journalism demonstrated until there is an ax to grind.
At this rate we will soon have 'lil pp le pire who cannot address a policy question now or have information longer than a bumper sticker.
... and the population mumbled and shuffled and dithered at the rape and death of the earth ...
I have only read a very little bit of the report but it looks to me like the members of the committee had already determined that there was interference based on nothing but stupid press releases.
I suspect that there are really instances of political interference in the Canadian political system. What I really worry about is the USA. Who gives a damn about a few Indian intelligence people trying to influence the elections in Mississauga?
On the other hand, how many Americans are seducing the Canadian government, providing all kinds of support etc. Just generally influencing the Canadian government . And in this case I don't mean just the US government, but any and all the US firms that are working with us because basically they are the US.
Well I don't think that inquiry into foreign influences bad I really think we really should have looked at the elephant in the room.
Canadians want to know the names of currently serving parliamentarians who have been unduly influenced by foreign governments. A people that has shown aero sense of urgency over anything in several generations is now in a knot over a problem that’s over thirty years old. I guess we can thank Junior for that. He stumbled into the job making it well known that he thought there was nothing to it. “Sunny ways” – “Too easy”. Right.
Who cared about Mulroney’s sales of citizenship that put Canada on the hook for the interests of over a quarter million in Hong Kong? Who cared when Power Corp told Chretien to take the lead in its project to rehabilitate China’s international face after the Tiananmen massacre? Who cares now that over the past thirty years a lot of parliamentarians have been involved in the takeover of so much of the country’s policy by the Canada-China Business Council? Why and through what mechanism was the report of Project Sidewinder ignored? No government cared. No opposition party cared enough to do anything about it. And neither did the people care. They can wait. I'd like to see more heads than just Trudeau's plus eleven.
When Junior appointed David Johnston to perform the whitewash, the NDP asked for an investigation that would expose the history of how the current situation developed. Within the two ruling parties – no takers. Is that of any surprise?
Gerta didn't communicate by computer, lungta. Computers have become very effective weapons.
Your point is well taken, John. Computerization has put the problem on steroids.
Yes the Indian Modi government should be called out.
The masses crave for an expose of some brown people that influence Canada!
Thankfully it has not gone unnoticed that the bigger 'international' influencer is the USA, to whom we have been sold out hook , line and sinker.
Harris makes a reference to Stephen Harper's position as Chairman of the International Democracy Union. If that's not collusion with foreign agents in a direct effort to influence political wills then I must truly be from another planet.
This kind of influence has become subtle, TB. Its perpetrators know how to fly under the radar.
Harper's ties to Victor Orban must be front and center, zoombats.
Isn't it Pearson who wanted Canada to be a "nutral" Country?
It was Pearson who proposed the idea of peacekeeping, Anon. Please initial your next comment.
In thinking about "Foreign Interference", I decided to look at MP's sponsored travel I scraped the "LIST OF SPONSORED TRAVEL 2023" https://ciec-ccie.parl.gc.ca/en/publications/Pages/Travel2023-Deplacements2023.aspx and did a few counts.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) sponsored 21 trips to Israel while the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto sponsored 2 more. I am not particularly sure who is funding either of them.
The next most popular destination was Taiwan with the "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada* sponsoring 17 trips and the *Government of Taiwan* sponsoring one. I think we can assume that the Taiwan Gov't is funding these trips.
No organization other than the The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada appear to have sponsored more than 4 trips and most appear to sponsor 1 or 2.
I did notice that two other anti-People's Republic of China groups funded trips, Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC)funded 3 and the World Uyghur Congress funded one.
There were some unexpected sponsors. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers sponsored a trip to Torontoto Toronto.
That's interesting, jrk. That's not conclusive evidence. But it could be "how to manual," suggesting how all of this works.
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