Roundup: Allegations and reactions to reports of targeting an MP’s family

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The big news that dominated much of the discourse yesterday was that Globe and Mail story that a secret intelligence document from two years ago says that the Chinese regime sees Canada as a priority target for foreign interference because we don’t have a foreign agent registry, and said that they were targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong’s family in Hong Kong, and that a Chinese diplomat in Canada was working on the matter. This of course turned into the daily outrage—Chong decried that he wasn’t warned about this, and then we saw the dog and pony show in Question Period. Justin Trudeau said that after reading the Globe story he has asked his officials to look into this document, and called the matter unacceptable. Oh, and two of those so-called Chinese “police stations” appear to still be in operation in the Montreal area, in spite of the RCMP saying they’d shut them down. So, there’s that.

https://twitter.com/MichaelChongMP/status/1653044204438732803

But here’s the thing—Chong isn’t an idiot, even if he sometimes plays one in Question Period, and should have known that his family there did face risks. Activists from these diaspora communities here have been saying it for years, and many have pointed to the fact that they deliberately don’t have contact with their family members back home in order to try to protect them. Chong shouldn’t have needed a CSIS briefing to know if his family in Hong Kong was under threat—he should have put two-and-two together on his own, given how outspoken he is about the regime. (Update: Behold, two years ago he stated he was doing just that). Trying to blame the government sounds particularly disingenuous because I know that Chong knows better, even if he wants to playact shock and outrage for the cameras in order to score points. There is a better way to deal with these allegations of foreign interference without these kinds of drama camp antics.

Meanwhile, Canada’s self-appointed media critic is in full braying doofus mode, and has some thoughts about journalistic ethics around media outlets reporting (or not) on leaked documents that they haven’t seen or been able to verify. Aside from the fact that CBC’s politics page did run the Canadian Press wire story about Chong’s reaction, Scheer should know how this works, right? Does he think that CBC can just call up the leaker and say “Hey, can we have a look at those documents too?” Well, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did believe that, but seriously—if he bothered to think it through for half a second, he would understand why CBC isn’t reporting on it, but that’s inconvenient for his narrative and his rage-farming, so here we are.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russians fired another early-morning salvo of missiles at Ukraine, and of the 18 fired, 15 were brought down by air defences, leaving three to strike targets primarily in the eastern city of Pavlohrad, killing two and rounding 40; Kyiv did not suffer any strikes this time. Over in Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces have pushed Russians back from several parts of the city, and US estimates are that 100,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the past five months (up to 20,000 of those killed), most of them in and around Bakhmut. Two Canadian volunteer soldiers fighting for Ukraine were killed in Bakhmut last week.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1653047560020414465

https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/1652911854501388290

Good reads:

  • Here are more of the details about the agreement to end the civil service strike (with the exception of CRA employees, who are still striking).
  • Marco Mendicino introduced new amendments to the gun control bill which are something of a retreat, promising new definitions but not affecting current models.
  • Canada is working with allies in the region to assist with land evacuations from Sudan, or at least getting people to the port of Sudan where Canadian ships are.
  • AFN national chief RoseAnne Archibald says there is progress with the Vatican on returning Indigenous artefacts there, but questions remain about the process.
  • The CBC has an interview with Princess Anne about the continuity and stability that her brother, King Charles, represents, and that value that monarchy possesses.
  • Senators heard testimony from Black and racialised employees of the Canadian Human Rights Commission of the discrimination they faced on the job.
  • Nova Scotia may be experimenting with online voting, but Elections Canada isn’t, and it should stay that way because only paper ballots are actually secure.
  • With the Alberta election now officially on, Danielle Smith won’t say if she’s following through with her threat to sue CBC for their reporting on her taped call.
  • Matt Gurney calls out the Ford government’s propensity for silence in the face of bad news, and the fact that it keeps working for them to the detriment of democracy.
  • Mike Moffatt and Ken Boessenkool suggest some federal tax incentives in order to get movement on building new purpose-built rental units across the country.
  • Paul Wells ponders the current state of both the Liberals and the Conservatives, and what this portends before the next election (whenever that may be).

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Allegations and reactions to reports of targeting an MP’s family”

  1. You use the line, “It’s always still 1995” when the budget is discussed, but wondering if it’s also true on election spending disclosures. Kept seeing complaints online about CPC-paid-for bot account hyping messages are spamming critics, but doesn’t the CPC have to disclose their spending and wouldn’t that include the troll bot companies?

    • To the best of my knowledge, they would need to disclose election spending, but that assumes that paid-for bot accounts are actually real, when chances are they’re not.

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