Top secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents detail how China infiltrated Canadian elections at local, provincial, and federal levels. The classified “Intelligence Assessment” is a report from October 31, 2022, on the various instances of China Communist Party (CCP) operatives influencing all levels of Canadian political party leaders, according to Sam Cooper, who obtained the documents, as published in The Bureau. “Interference actors and activities can span various levels of government,” the report states. Canadian elected officials, who are “trusted contacts” of the public, “are now implementing the [Chinese] consulate’s desires.”The new report highlights gaps in Canada’s present foreign interference inquiry because Justice Marie-Josée Hogue has been instructed to investigate only the 2019 and 2021 elections, Cooper said, which is a “shortsighted” approach. It outlines how “hostile states secretly fund preferred candidates via community networks in Canada.” The report is to be presented in Ottawa Thursday. After being asked if they would be investigating any of the three cases of Chinese interference in Canadian elections outlined in the intelligence report, Ottawa RCMP said police are currently “assessing information in relation to foreign actor interference, including electoral interference.”“While we can’t speak further about this, we can confirm that if criminal or illegal activities occurring in Canada are found to be backed by a foreign state, it is within the RCMP’s mandate to investigate this activity,” spokesperson Robin Percival said..The intelligence report’s main allegation surrounds a provincial leadership candidate, unnamed in the documents but referred to as “CA3,” secretly met with CCP agents at a Chinese consulate in 2022 to secure election support.A “trusted contact” of a Chinese consulate in Canada set up a “a ‘sensitive’ meeting with a provincially elected official” running for party leadership in June 2022, the CSIS report states. The candidate was scheduled to arrive at the consulate in a separate vehicle and enter “via a side entrance.” The candidate would then meet with Chinese agents “where no outsider could observe the meeting taking place.”“A PRC (People’s Republic of China) consulate official noted that the arrangements were ‘slightly deceptive,’” CSIS wrote in the report. “The PRC Consulate, after clandestinely meeting with CA3, signalled their preference for CA3 to the trusted contacts,” the document states. “Subsequently in July 2022, trusted contacts of the PRC Consulate organized a campaign rally for CA3 and the same trusted contacts have formalized their continued support for CA3 during the leadership nomination process.”.CA3 was running for a Canadian provincial election, and considering the dates published, Cooper deduced it was either the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) or the Alberta United Conservative Party (UCP). The two provinces had elections around the same time in 2022. China has a consulate in both Vancouver and Calgary, as well as Toronto and Montreal, but both provincial parties denied any secret meetings. BC premier David Eby’s office told The Bureau “all of the allegations presented are completely false” and “the publishing of such an assertion is defamatory.”“There is absolutely no truth to the assertion that Premier Eby had any meetings with or invited support from the Chinese Consulate, or any of their representatives, during his time as a candidate for the leadership of the BC NDP,” the spokesman said. The office of Alberta premier Danielle Smith, who was not an elected official at the time of the allegations, told the publication “we are not aware of any leadership candidate participating in any such meeting." “The UCP has stringent procedures,” UCP spokesman Dave Prisco told The Bureau. "Our verification and voting processes during the leadership contest were overseen by third-party auditors, scrutineers, and were streamed live on a publicly available webcam 24/7, ensuring unparalleled transparency and accountability.".The report also suggests Beijing interfered with the 2022 federal Conservative leadership race through financial infiltration — just months after the 2021 federal election where former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was attacked with Chinese disinformation.According to the CSIS documents, CCP operatives purchased Conservative party memberships to vote for an unidentified candidate (referred to as “CA1” in the report) who would counter the party’s “anti-China” position. CA1, like the provincial candidate CA3, had a clandestine “meeting” with Chinese proxies and earned “the consulate’s endorsement.”The candidate “said they were unconcerned, as CA1 knows ‘how the underground works’ and that ‘they’ (the PRC Consulate) had supported CA1 in various past elections,” the CSIS document states. .The CSIS Intelligence Assessment also outlines financial support to a mayoral candidate in a particular (unidentified) Canadian city from Chinese proxies in successive elections in 2018 and 2022. In the case of the mayoral elections, agents from the Chinese consulate “co-opted” community networks to allocate money and “material support” to their favoured candidate.Cooper derived from the report the mayoral candidate in question is likely sitting mayor Ken Sim based on allegations in another classified CSIS report dated January 2022 which noted China’s consul general (CG) in Vancouver “stated that they needed” to get Chinese Canadians “to come out and elect a specific Chinese-Canadian candidate,” emphasizing “the candidate will rely on those votes.” This came after the 2021 federal election when former BC Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who put forward a motion to create a foreign agent registry, was attacked with Chinese disinformation, much like O’Toole, as per the Globe and Mail. The publication named Vancouver counsel general Tong Xiaoling in its report. “This report demonstrates CG Tong’s continued interest in involving herself in Canadian electoral processes to benefit the PRC,” the CSIS Intelligence Assessment from October 31 concluded. Former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart, who beat Sim in 2018 by 957 votes and lost to him in 2022 by a whopping 36,000 votes in 2022, said the current federal inquiry is “like they are examining their front doors, but they don’t realize the whole back wall of the house is missing.”Stewart told The Bureau he is “now almost certain [interference] occurred.” “I can’t help but think, in any other G7 country, this would be a red-alert that your systems are being compromised, and there would be an immediate cross-party effort to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “But here, in fact, there’s been cross-party collusion to limit this inquiry, to just the federal level.”
Top secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents detail how China infiltrated Canadian elections at local, provincial, and federal levels. The classified “Intelligence Assessment” is a report from October 31, 2022, on the various instances of China Communist Party (CCP) operatives influencing all levels of Canadian political party leaders, according to Sam Cooper, who obtained the documents, as published in The Bureau. “Interference actors and activities can span various levels of government,” the report states. Canadian elected officials, who are “trusted contacts” of the public, “are now implementing the [Chinese] consulate’s desires.”The new report highlights gaps in Canada’s present foreign interference inquiry because Justice Marie-Josée Hogue has been instructed to investigate only the 2019 and 2021 elections, Cooper said, which is a “shortsighted” approach. It outlines how “hostile states secretly fund preferred candidates via community networks in Canada.” The report is to be presented in Ottawa Thursday. After being asked if they would be investigating any of the three cases of Chinese interference in Canadian elections outlined in the intelligence report, Ottawa RCMP said police are currently “assessing information in relation to foreign actor interference, including electoral interference.”“While we can’t speak further about this, we can confirm that if criminal or illegal activities occurring in Canada are found to be backed by a foreign state, it is within the RCMP’s mandate to investigate this activity,” spokesperson Robin Percival said..The intelligence report’s main allegation surrounds a provincial leadership candidate, unnamed in the documents but referred to as “CA3,” secretly met with CCP agents at a Chinese consulate in 2022 to secure election support.A “trusted contact” of a Chinese consulate in Canada set up a “a ‘sensitive’ meeting with a provincially elected official” running for party leadership in June 2022, the CSIS report states. The candidate was scheduled to arrive at the consulate in a separate vehicle and enter “via a side entrance.” The candidate would then meet with Chinese agents “where no outsider could observe the meeting taking place.”“A PRC (People’s Republic of China) consulate official noted that the arrangements were ‘slightly deceptive,’” CSIS wrote in the report. “The PRC Consulate, after clandestinely meeting with CA3, signalled their preference for CA3 to the trusted contacts,” the document states. “Subsequently in July 2022, trusted contacts of the PRC Consulate organized a campaign rally for CA3 and the same trusted contacts have formalized their continued support for CA3 during the leadership nomination process.”.CA3 was running for a Canadian provincial election, and considering the dates published, Cooper deduced it was either the British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) or the Alberta United Conservative Party (UCP). The two provinces had elections around the same time in 2022. China has a consulate in both Vancouver and Calgary, as well as Toronto and Montreal, but both provincial parties denied any secret meetings. BC premier David Eby’s office told The Bureau “all of the allegations presented are completely false” and “the publishing of such an assertion is defamatory.”“There is absolutely no truth to the assertion that Premier Eby had any meetings with or invited support from the Chinese Consulate, or any of their representatives, during his time as a candidate for the leadership of the BC NDP,” the spokesman said. The office of Alberta premier Danielle Smith, who was not an elected official at the time of the allegations, told the publication “we are not aware of any leadership candidate participating in any such meeting." “The UCP has stringent procedures,” UCP spokesman Dave Prisco told The Bureau. "Our verification and voting processes during the leadership contest were overseen by third-party auditors, scrutineers, and were streamed live on a publicly available webcam 24/7, ensuring unparalleled transparency and accountability.".The report also suggests Beijing interfered with the 2022 federal Conservative leadership race through financial infiltration — just months after the 2021 federal election where former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was attacked with Chinese disinformation.According to the CSIS documents, CCP operatives purchased Conservative party memberships to vote for an unidentified candidate (referred to as “CA1” in the report) who would counter the party’s “anti-China” position. CA1, like the provincial candidate CA3, had a clandestine “meeting” with Chinese proxies and earned “the consulate’s endorsement.”The candidate “said they were unconcerned, as CA1 knows ‘how the underground works’ and that ‘they’ (the PRC Consulate) had supported CA1 in various past elections,” the CSIS document states. .The CSIS Intelligence Assessment also outlines financial support to a mayoral candidate in a particular (unidentified) Canadian city from Chinese proxies in successive elections in 2018 and 2022. In the case of the mayoral elections, agents from the Chinese consulate “co-opted” community networks to allocate money and “material support” to their favoured candidate.Cooper derived from the report the mayoral candidate in question is likely sitting mayor Ken Sim based on allegations in another classified CSIS report dated January 2022 which noted China’s consul general (CG) in Vancouver “stated that they needed” to get Chinese Canadians “to come out and elect a specific Chinese-Canadian candidate,” emphasizing “the candidate will rely on those votes.” This came after the 2021 federal election when former BC Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who put forward a motion to create a foreign agent registry, was attacked with Chinese disinformation, much like O’Toole, as per the Globe and Mail. The publication named Vancouver counsel general Tong Xiaoling in its report. “This report demonstrates CG Tong’s continued interest in involving herself in Canadian electoral processes to benefit the PRC,” the CSIS Intelligence Assessment from October 31 concluded. Former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart, who beat Sim in 2018 by 957 votes and lost to him in 2022 by a whopping 36,000 votes in 2022, said the current federal inquiry is “like they are examining their front doors, but they don’t realize the whole back wall of the house is missing.”Stewart told The Bureau he is “now almost certain [interference] occurred.” “I can’t help but think, in any other G7 country, this would be a red-alert that your systems are being compromised, and there would be an immediate cross-party effort to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “But here, in fact, there’s been cross-party collusion to limit this inquiry, to just the federal level.”
