Canada may not have expelled Chinese diplomats, in connection with the Beijing regime’s attempts to interfere in Canadian elections, but it is taking other measures to share its dissatisfaction, assures Mélanie Joly. His Foreign Ministry notably refused a request for a diplomatic visa last fall. A gesture easier to make than the dismissal of diplomats already on Canadian soil, for lack of tangible evidence, explained the minister in parliamentary committee Thursday.
“We can prevent rather than cure,” argued Mélanie Joly, recognizing the limits of possible diplomatic reprisals against representatives of the Chinese regime in Canada.
Asked several times by Conservative MPs, who asked her why no Chinese diplomat had their credentials withdrawn, Ms. Joly suggested that it was for lack of concrete evidence to act in this direction. “If we have any form of hard evidence of wrongdoing, we are going to send diplomats home very, very, very quickly,” she insisted. National security experts have repeatedly pointed out that secret intelligence very rarely allows itself to be converted into evidence.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, refused a request for a diplomatic visa from China, the minister confirmed, after the news was reported by the Globe and Mailwhich spoke of a position deemed by the Canadian government not to be diplomatic, but rather “probably intended to handle political and interference activities”.
Only one visa has reportedly been refused to date. There has been a higher “level of awareness” in the department for several months, which means that these requests are studied more carefully, explained the minister.
Teases and teasing
Mélanie Joly also insisted that she and her senior officials have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction to the Chinese authorities. The Chinese Ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, has been summoned more than once by Foreign Affairs. In particular on February 24 to discuss precisely foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections following the revelations of the Globe and Mail in this sense, reported a senior official of the Canadian ministry.
Representations have also been made by the Canadian ambassador in Beijing to the Chinese regime and Minister Joly confronted her counterpart Qin Gang at the G20 last week.
Tory MP Michael Cooper appeared to mock the minister about it. “You spoke firmly with your counterpart, according to what you say. You even looked him in the eye. I’m sure he must have been very intimidated, ”he mocked, over a tense and cacophonous committee meeting.
A comment that was immediately denounced by the minister herself, her fellow Liberal MPs on the committee, as well as New Democrat Rachel Blaney who called it “shameful”.
Ms. Joly said she was not made aware from the outset of concerns of foreign interference by Canadian intelligence services. She has since asked them to be kept informed, in order to “conduct our diplomatic relations properly”.
Chinese police stations
In the morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had indicated that the presence of Chinese police stations on Canadian soil – and in particular in Montreal – revealed the Montreal Journal Thursday — “concerns him enormously”. “We are making sure that the [Gendarmerie royale du Canada] is following up on this and that our intelligence systems are taking this seriously,” he added.
The RCMP confirmed Thursday that the Quebec National Security Integrated Team had opened investigations into these two alleged Chinese police stations located in Montreal and Brossard. The RCMP also investigated three other such centers in Toronto and one in Vancouver.
The RCMP also investigated three other such centers in Toronto and one in Vancouver. These have since been closed, said the assistant commissioner of the federal police, Michael Duheme, in a parliamentary committee last week.
These “police stations” are suspected of carrying out, under the guise of Chinese nationals’ support services, activities aimed at intimidating and persuading nationals who have committed crimes to return to China to face criminal proceedings.
Justin Trudeau has once again been called upon by the opposition parties in the Commons to order a public inquiry. “Who is going to stand up in this government to talk to the Prime Minister, make him listen to reason and tell him that it takes the appointment of a commissioner for an independent public inquiry and […] immediate? Who will dare to stand up to speak to him? “, ended up launching the leader bloquiste, Yves-François Blanchet.