An independent special rapporteur and two parliamentary committees will go hunting for Chinese agents of influence in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau detailed on Monday March 6 a “broad plan” to shed light on allegations of Chinese operations aimed at influencing the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
"Any attack or attempted attack on our democracy is unacceptable," said Justin Trudeau, who for several weeks has been under intense political pressure from the conservative opposition to react strongly to the revelations of several media.
“Malaise of the Canadian intelligence services”
The new announcements “constitute an important political moment for Justin Trudeau, because until now, his government could give the impression of minimizing the scope of the revelations”, estimates Steve Hewitt, historian and specialist in Canada at the University of Birmingham.
Since November 2022, the accumulating revelations, however, give the impression that Canada has become one of the favorite playgrounds for agents of Chinese political influence, and were beginning to get dangerously close to the direct entourage of the Prime Minister. minister.
The Pierre-Eliott Trudeau Foundation - in memory of the former Prime Minister and father of Justin Trudeau - thus had to return, in early March, a donation of 200,000 Canadian dollars (137,000 euros) that the Canadian intelligence services suspected of being linked to a wealthy Chinese businessman acting on orders from Beijing.
“There is currently a proliferation of leaks to the media of 'top secret' documents that suggest unease within the intelligence community.
Some of them seem to disagree with the government's handling of information about possible Chinese political interference,” continues Steve Hewitt, who has worked on intelligence and homeland security issues in Canada.
It all started in November 2022 with the revelations of the Global Television Network - the second largest television network in Canada after CTV - on the suspicions of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) regarding the 2019 federal election.
Canadian spies suspected the Chinese consulate in Toronto of having been at the heart of a financing network of 11 candidates for Canadian Parliament who would carry Beijing's interests high.
Without citing them, CSIS pointed out that they were both members of Justin Trudeau's Liberal party and the main opposition force, the Conservative party.
The 1001 techniques to favor pro-Chinese candidates
"The Chinese Communist Party has used all the elements at its disposal to carry out operations that are so many direct threats to our national security and our sovereignty," said the Canadian Intelligence Service in response to the revelations of the Global Television Network.
The Chinese spies are, in particular, suspected of having paid more than 130,000 euros directly to candidates deemed more “Sino-compatible” and to agents in the field responsible for helping to organize the electoral campaigns of these candidates.
A Canadian national of Chinese origin is said to have even become a candidate after intense pro-China lobbying at the highest level of the State, claimed CSIS.
Han Dong, elected member of the federal parliament in 2019, would have become the candidate of the liberal party after Beijing agents denigrated the other contender of the ruling party, Gen Tan, even in the entourage of Justin Trudeau.
"The Chinese consulate was not satisfied with Gen Tan's position," a CSIS official told Canadian television on condition of anonymity.
The revelations then became much more embarrassing for Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.
In February 2023, the Globe and Mail, the second largest English-language daily in the country, claimed that China had done everything to favor a narrow victory for the Liberal Party over the Conservatives in the 2021 federal election, according to the conclusions of a new investigation by the Canadian intelligence services.
China has been accused of mounting disinformation campaigns in Chinese on messaging services such as WeChat in order to convince the Chinese diaspora in Canada that the Conservatives wanted to establish files on Canadian citizens of Chinese origin or were just plain racist.
A targeted campaign that may have some electoral impact because nearly 5% of the Canadian population is of Chinese origin.
Chinese consulates have also been accused of recruiting ethnic Chinese students to volunteer to help Liberal candidates run campaigns.
Result: "In several constituencies where a strong propensity of voters have Chinese origins, the Conservatives have suffered heavy defeats," says the National Post, a Canadian conservative daily.
But the newspaper points out that this is not enough to conclude on the effectiveness of Chinese tactics since the Conservative Party does indeed have more anti-Chinese rhetoric than the Liberals.
These candidates might have lost anyway.
Objective: Make Canada hard to govern?
Still, the efforts made by Beijing, according to the CSIS, to help the Liberal party to stay in office may surprise.
Since 2018, when Justin Trudeau was already Prime Minister, Sino-Canadian relations have only deteriorated.
There was the arrest by Ottawa of Meng Wanzhou, number 2 of Huawei, the public denunciation of Beijing's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority and economic sanctions against several Chinese nationals linked to this policy.
In return, the communist regime has more than once openly criticized Ottawa and imposed, in 2021, sanctions against several Canadian nationals.
But if the conservatives had won, Beijing might have feared an even more aggressive policy towards it.
And, above all, “the objective of this campaign of influence seems to have been to ensure that the liberals obtain only a narrow majority.
This means that the country may be difficult to govern, enough to fix Chinese affairs”, notes Steve Hewitt.
Beijing has strenuously denied any interference in the Canadian democratic game.
But for the opposition, these suspicions about the Chinese preference for Justin Trudeau are political blessed bread.
This is why the Conservative Party has been demanding for several weeks the opening of a public inquiry.
This is also why Justin Trudeau has been reluctant so far.
“Politically, he knows that a public inquiry will keep the media spotlight on this affair for months if not longer, which can only favor the conservatives”, notes Steve Hewitt.
Monday's announcements do not contain any conclusions from a public inquiry.
The special rapporteur and the two parliamentary committees seized operate behind closed doors.
For observers, what is at stake in this affair should exceed politicians' calculations.
The activism of Chinese spies in Canada is important for the entire North American region.
“Having access to Canada brings you closer to the United States,” recalls Steve Hewitt.
In this respect, the Chinese spies did not invent anything, and they act like the secret agents of the USSR during the Cold War, concludes the historian: “at the time, the Soviets sought to acquire Canadian passports to enter more easily on US soil”.
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