More than one-quarter of Chinese diplomats assigned to a Toronto consulate have left Canada since the last election, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“It does make me wonder,” former Canadian envoy to China Charles Burton told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. .Figures on accredited staff were updated on Tuesday for the first time since the expulsion of a Chinese spy..The Canadian government expelled a Chinese diplomat accused of harassing a Chinese-Canadian MP who criticized the government’s conduct against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide in May. .READ MORE: SENT PACKING: Canada expels Chinese diplomat for threats against MP.Global Affairs Canada labelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei as persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country after it was revealed he was targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, ON) and gathered information on his family in Hong Kong..“We will not tolerate any form of foreign interference in our internal affairs,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. .Global Affairs Canada counted 28 Chinese diplomats in Toronto and it had 38 accredited during the 2021 election. No reason was given for the 26% reduction. .MPs have been cautioned China assigned a high number of diplomats to Canada. .Burton pointed out Japan has 46 diplomats and India has 35. .“The United Kingdom has 23,” he said. .“China has 146 diplomats accredited to Canada.”.The number of Chinese envoys in Toronto remains large..Its 28 diplomats compares to 20 Americans, 12 Indians, 10 Germans, 10 South Koreans, nine Japanese, eight Brazilians, seven Israelis, six Italians, four Mexicans, three Ukrainians, and two Brits assigned to Toronto. .Cabinet confirmed it refused to accredit one other Chinese envoy. Joly said there was a visa which was not granted. .“When China wanted to send a political operative last fall, we decided to deny a visa, which obviously is the right thing to do,” said Joly. .“These are the different actions that we have put into place.”.If the Canadian government has any form of clear evidence of wrongdoing, she said it will “send diplomats packing very, very, very quickly.” She said an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. .Conservative MP Luc Berthold (Megantic-L’Erable, QC) said people “can see a cover-up is still underway.” .“It’s all well and good to say, ‘We’re going to do X, Y and Z, we are going to be strong in the face of China,’ but the facts speak for themselves,” said Berthold.
