(Ottawa) Canada will not tolerate “any form of foreign interference” on its territory, and to reiterate the message, the government has summoned the Chinese ambassador to Ottawa.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, announced it Thursday, in committee, during an exchange with MP Michael Chong. The latter, who, like his family in Hong Kong, was the victim of a campaign of threats orchestrated by the Chinese regime, had just deplored the absence of Deputy Minister David Morrison.
If his chair was empty, he was busy elsewhere, the head of diplomacy told him. “In light of the facts revealed by CSIS, I have instructed my Deputy Minister to summon the Chinese Ambassador [Cong Peiwu]. That’s what he’s doing as we speak,” she said.
This summons comes after the publication, last Monday in the Globe and Mailof an article in which it is reported that MP Chong and members of his family have been the target of threats, a scheme which was set up by a Chinese diplomat from the Toronto consulate, Zhao Wei.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Michael Chong
The elected Conservative concerned urged the Liberals of Justin Trudeau to immediately expel the representative of Beijing. According to him, the Canadian government should have already shown him the door, especially since nothing prevents him from doing so, he insisted.
“This diplomat should have already been expelled. In my opinion, the government has no choice but to declare it persona non grata. […] If he does not, he sends the message to the world that Canada is open to this kind of interference, and that there are no consequences,” MP Chong insisted in an interview on Wednesday.
Minister Joly reiterated Thursday before a House of Commons committee that “all options were on the table” and affirmed that the government was examining what could be the “consequences” to sanction “this behavior”.
Beijing denies
The Chinese Embassy in Canada has denied any form of attempted interference.
‘Politicians and the media’, according to Beijing’s mission on its website, ‘falsely claimed that Chinese consular officials in Canada made so-called threats’ against a Canadian MP and his relatives .
“It’s pure political manipulation,” a statement posted on the website said.
CSIS allegedly did not inform Justin Trudeau
The information on the Chinese regime’s maneuvers is taken from a report produced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in July 2021. The head of the agency, David Vigneault, read the relevant extracts to Michael Chong , Tuesday evening, during a meeting organized by Justin Trudeau.
The prime minister said Wednesday that CSIS failed to inform the government of the campaign of intimidation against the MP and his family members. He also assured to have learned the case Monday, in the media.
“We asked what happened with this information, if it came out of CSIS. She was not. CSIS determined that this was not something worth communicating to higher levels, because it was not a serious enough concern,” he said.
A directive has been issued to correct the situation immediately, the Prime Minister also said.