China has been spying and secretly intervening in Canada for more than 20 years, reveals a Canadian secret service document obtained by our Bureau of Investigation.
• Read also: A commission on foreign interference that risks leaving Quebecers wanting more
The 2010 report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), described as “top secret” for “Canadian eyes only”, paints a chilling portrait of the extent of Beijing’s activities in Canada.
Chinese intelligence services are described as the “most active perpetrators of economic espionage and foreign interference” in Canada since the early 2000s.
In the months following the production of this report, CSIS Director Richard Fadden publicly claimed that Canadian politicians were under the influence of foreign governments, without specifically naming China.
This outing had the effect of a setback and upset members of the Chinese diaspora as much as Canadian politicians. This also earned Mr. Fadden a summons before a committee of the House of Commons.
It was only ten years later, in 2020, that CSIS again mentioned Chinese interference in its annual report.
However, by the turn of the century, Chinese forces were at work in Canada, according to the report Chinese espionage and foreign interference in Canada: a ten-year retrospectivewhich we obtained through access to information.
Relations between Canada and China have cooled considerably since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Beijing in August 2016.
Photo AFP
Compromising Canadian personalities
“China’s growth in economic power, increasing confidence, and a new aggressiveness in recruiting agents suggest that it has the resources and the will to increasingly intensify its intelligence activities,” the report reads. document from 2010.
This CSIS report aimed at the time to expose to the government apparatus the “potential damage” that Chinese interference could “cause to Canadian interests”.
It describes in particular how China uses both agents of its intelligence services and “non-professionals”, particularly from the academic world or the business world, to “capitalize on opportunities to influence people in the highest Canadian political offices.
“This includes efforts to covertly influence, manipulate or compromise Canadian political figures, ordinary citizens, democratic processes and regulatory bodies. China is very active in Canada in this regard.”
Attempts to intimidate or control the Chinese diaspora in Canada were also already known to the secret services in the mid-2000s, this report specifies.
“Chinese political interference activities also take the form of People’s Republic of China (PRC) diplomats aggressively countering the activities of Canadian-based groups and individuals considered by the Chinese government to be opponents of the regime; These include Falun Gong followers, promoters of democratic reforms and Tibetan, Uyghur and Taiwanese independence activists.”
Covert influence on media in Canada
Among foreign interference activities, CSIS points to Beijing’s “secret and unwanted” influence on certain local Chinese-language Canadian media.
“Some PRC officials view Chinese-language media in foreign media outlets as an extension of the global strategic communications apparatus overseen by Beijing,” the report said.
The CSIS analysis ends with a prediction, namely that interference and espionage from China, already very present in 2010, will only become more and more widespread in Canada.
“It is hard to resist the conclusion that Chinese intelligence activities will increase in Canada over the next ten years. In short, the coming decade will likely see a growing stream of covert actions by China against Canadian interests.
Last March, the whistleblower and Canadian intelligence employee behind the leak of CSIS information to the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail wrote in an anonymous letter that he did so because of government inaction in the face of foreign interference.
-With the collaboration of Chrystian Viens
Chinese interference in Canada
- January 2010: Writing the CSIS report Chinese espionage and foreign interference in Canada: a ten-year retrospective.
- June 2010: Interview with the CBC in which CSIS director Richard Fadden mentions that two provincial ministers are under the influence of a foreign government. The interview is broadcast the day before the Chinese president’s visit to Canada.
- July 2010: Mr. Fadden writes to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews about foreign interference which poses “several challenges” to his intelligence service. He also appears before a parliamentary committee to explain his comments. The Bloc Québécois and the NDP are calling for his resignation.
- 2020: CSIS mentions foreign interference by the People’s Republic of China for the first time in its annual report.
- December 2022: Start of a series of reports published in the Globe and Mail on China’s possible interference in the 2021 federal election to ensure the election of a Liberal government. The revelations continued for several months.
- March 2023: The whistleblower and CSIS employee behind several of these revelations shares his motivations in an open letter. “Months passed, then years. The threat has become more and more pressing, but no serious action has been taken,” he said of Chinese interference.