Another leak in Canada from its intelligence agency, CSIS, is drawing attention to China’s illegal influence, interference, and intelligence operations in support of the Liberal government in Ottawa.
Predictably, the Liberals are in damage control mode. Why bite the hand that feeds you?
In public comments, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems more concerned with the identity of the whistleblower who exposed the coverup, than with the crimes of Beijing and its witting Canadian agents. Ottawa has for years self-servingly downplayed and hidden this authoritarian influence from the public.
To this day, the names of the 11 winning members of Parliament supported by China have not been released. Neither have any charges been brought against those involved in the schemes.
Nine Liberal and two Conservative MPs, all supported by China, are now making laws in Ottawa and influencing the public from positions of authority.
The alleged crimes include political campaign donations encouraged by China that accrue tax credits for the donors, who then get refunded the balance from the campaign. It’s an outrageous scheme that bilks money from taxpayers, including Conservatives, to support the Liberal Party and those few Conservatives seen as “friends of China.”
“Sympathetic donors are … encouraged to provide campaign contributions to candidates favoured by China – donations for which they receive a tax credit from the federal government,” reports The Globe and Mail. “Then, the CSIS report from Dec. 20, 2021 says, political campaigns quietly, and illegally, return part of the contribution – ‘the difference between the original donation and the government’s refund’ – back to the donors.”
China’s sophisticated political strategy in Canada maximizes its influence by seeking a Liberal minority government, meaning the Liberals would need to gain support from at least one other political party to remain in power. This, Beijing apparently reasoned, would keep relatively China-friendly Trudeau in power, but keep him sufficiently off-balance to remain maximally dependent on continued support from the Chinese Communist Party.
By Anders Corr
