Communist Party agents cost a Conservative MP his seat in Parliament, the House affairs committee was told yesterday. MP Kenny Chiu (Steveston-Richmond East, BC) was targeted by a “massive campaign of disinformation,” testified an investigator who looked at the case, according to Blacklock's Reporter..“What happened in the case of Mr. Chiu was on the same day as there was a poll that came out that showed the Conservatives might achieve a minority government, then this massive campaign of disinformation on multiple Chinese language websites directed at people in Canada appeared,” testified Charles Burton, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa think tank..“Do you think Chinese influence might have changed the result of the election?” asked Conservative MP Luc Berthold (Mégantic-L’Erable, QC). “My subjective judgment was the impact was enormous,” replied Burton..Chiu in 2021 lost re-election by 3,477 votes to Liberal candidate Parm Bains. The committee has heard allegations Chiu was slandered on Chinese-language websites like WeChat..“My personal view is if had not been for that disinformation Mr. Chiu would still be in Parliament today,” said Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who served in China. Burton said he asked Hong Kong contacts to trace WeChat users who targeted the MP but was unsuccessful..“The disinformation that was launched in particular at Steveston-Richmond’s former MP Kenny Chiu is largely in the Chinese language and largely inaccessible to people who are monitoring elections,” testified Burton. “We don’t have the capability within the Canadian system to deal with activities in the diaspora community that could affect election results improperly.”.“There was no means to identify where the source of Chinese information in WeChat came from,” said Burton. “There was nothing in the Conservative Party or indeed within Elections Canada or even within the G7 rapid response mechanism in the Department of Foreign Affairs that was able to come to terms with this.”.“Would you not agree that attempts at foreign interference in Canada’s election process and other forms of foreign interference from China specifically have been ongoing for quite a number of years?” asked Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull (Whitby, ON). “There has been an increase,” replied Burton..“No Chinese diplomats have been declared persona non grata and no agents of the Chinese regime have been brought before a Canadian court to be held to account for alleged criminal activity,” said Burton. “This emboldens the Chinese regime to do much more of it in the next election. In other words the longer we remain passive and ineffective, the more encouraged they will be that they can do more of this and get away with this.”
