, 05.10.2023 07:02 AM

My latest: China’s tentacles

It’s nothing new. It’s not unique. And it’s not just something that happens in federal politics.

Chinese mauling of our democracy, and democratic institutions, that is. What has been reported in the media about the Chinese regime — that it deliberately and repeatedly sought to influence the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, and targeted a former cabinet minister for attacks — is well known.

Less known, however, are China’s attempts to do likewise at other levels of government, right across Canada.

In Vancouver, for instance, the Chinese consulate aggressively and regularly interfered in the city’s municipal election races. They’d do that using “proxies” — Manchurian candidates, in effect — grooming and deploying their shills in city election contests.

That revelation — which is fact, not conjecture — was found in a January 2022 report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which stated that the Chinese consul-general “groomed” candidates in B.C. to illicitly do Beijing’s bidding.

The report prompted the province’s premier to demand a briefing by CSIS, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — arguably Beijing’s best friend in the G7 — dismissed it all as “little bits and pieces of uncorroborated, unverified information.”

On that occasion, Trudeau resisted the temptation to label the CSIS report as “racist.” But Trudeau and his more obsequious MPs have used that canard on other occasions. So, too, the campaign of Olivia Chow, now seeking Toronto’s mayoralty — when asked about her relationship with Chinese front organizations.

Chow, who is usually a fair-minded person, shouldn’t ever make such an accusation. As she should know, China hasn’t just targeted federal politicians. It has sought to influence lesser levels of government, too. Even at the school board level.

That’s certainly what is alleged to happen at the level of Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). And reports about China’s meddling with the TDSB were followed by high-level resignations and recriminations.

As long ago as 2014, TDSB’s chair, Chris Bolton, abruptly resigned after what the Toronto Star then called “a never-ending stream of scandals” during Bolton’s tenure. “The timing of his resignation [was] questionable,” the Star reported — and China was one of those scandals.

When Bolton resigned, The Globe and Mail reported: “The news of his departure also comes just days before trustees are set to vote Wednesday on whether the TDSB should pursue its controversial partnership with the Chinese government. Mr. Bolton was the driving force behind the school board’s Confucius Institute.”

The “Institute,” which has been around for nearly two decades, has been the focus of controversy and opposition across democracies. Essentially, credible reports link the Confucius Institute to military and industrial espionage, including in Western educational institutions.

Former CSIS director Richard Fadden said that the Confucius Institute is “managed by people operating out of the embassy or consulates” and tasked with suppressing criticisms of Beijing.

After hundreds of parents signed a petition objecting to the presence of the Confucius institute in TDSB classrooms, Bolton hurriedly offered his resignation. One later report found no wrongdoing by him — but the author of the report was the TDSB itself.

Summarizing the scandals that had beset the TDSB, the Globe editorialized: “[Bolton] showed a stunning lack of judgment in striking an agreement with the Chinese government to offer Chinese language and cultural programs, subsidized and controlled by the non-democratic government in Beijing. Despite its innocuous name, the Confucius Institute functions as little more than a long arm of the Chinese state, pushing its political agenda under the guise of simple language instruction.”

And that, at the end, is the reality: China muscling into our democracy — even at the granular level of a school board. China’s regime is a multi-headed hydra, increasingly, its tentacles slinking into our institutions from coast to coast. No target is too small for Chinese manipulations, it seems.

Justin Trudeau and Olivia Chow may claim otherwise.

But they should know better.

28 Comments

  1. Peter Williams says:

    Justin Trudeau: I’m proudly pro choice… and I choose Xi.

  2. Curious V says:

    For Canada and the world to make any progress on this front requires collaboration with other democracies to form a coordinated response. To stave off punitive economic actions requires that Canada join with other democracies around the world. That, with a registry of foreign agents is the best bet to ward off interference in our institutions. Otherwise we’ll pay economic consequences. something that likely wouldn’t happen if we were part of a global initiative to protect our economies and democracies – requires the participation of five eyes countries, and the European union, and other democracies around the world – that or we’ll face punitive backlash for standing up for ourselves.

    • Peter Williams says:

      Why would any five eyes country trust Justin Trudeau? You might as well directly invite Xi et al into your gathering.

    • Curious V,

      Registries. Different kinds. I want to know how many countries besides the United States already have a registry for Americans who work on behalf of foreign governments. Now, does the same time of registry exist in America that covers foreign nationals who do lobbying? I don’t know the answer to that.

    • Gloriosus et Liber says:

      True, except the other democracies already view us as compromised; a weak link.

  3. Douglas W says:

    PMJT was treated like a child at the December G20 Summit by one of the most powerful figures in the world.

    This very public scolding spoke volumes of the power exuded over our PM.

    Even more dismaying: the speed in which JT high-tailed it from the scene of embarrassment, and the look on the face of the PM’s Chief of Staff.

  4. Warren,

    Just another part of a multitude of reasons to vote CPC next time. Pierre won’t coddle them, that’s for damned sure.

    • PJH says:

      I may hold my nose and do just that for this reason alone.

      • PJH,

        Thank you. [Smiling in appreciation.]

        (This PM has to go. He just has to. It’s long overdue.)

        • PJH says:

          Just when I think PP is acting Prime Ministerial, he goes and spoils it by renewing his vow to defund the CBC. Another one that stuck in my craw was the cheezy ad produced recently by the party critical of the PM’s holiday. Im sorry, but their ads still have the same cheezy production values that smack of Refooooorm which weve been seeing since the days of Presto. If there was ever a time to up their game and use the services of a Tawranna PR firm its now….:) I digress….the PM must go, and I will most likely vote Con…….Im certainly not going to vote for Maxime or Rick Peterson….;)

      • Martin Dixon says:

        Wow-now if someone like Curious V changes his view on JT, maybe we have a chance.

        • Martin,

          They will throw everything at us that they can think of but it won’t stick because most Canadians already just want that bastard out, period.

          • Douglas W says:

            Federal by-elections, June 19th: Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount, Oxford (Ontario), Winnipeg South Centre and Portage–Lisgar (Manitoba).

            Pretty good chance nothing will change, which is exactly the way JT wants it: Liberals hold Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount and Winnipeg South Centre.
            Conservatives hold Oxford and Portage–Lisgar.

  5. EsterHazyWasALoser says:

    I heard a reporter on the weekend (who was covering the Liberal convention) speak about what the delegates’ thoughts were concerning the Chinese interference allegations. The reporter indicated that the consensus from the attendees was that these allegations did not seem to be impacting their ability to win the next election, so they did not care. Kinda says it all about this country’s current state of affairs.

    • EHWAL,

      You can guess what I think about conventional wisdom: more often than not dead wrong. This is a case in point.

    • Gilbert says:

      They don’t think the allegation will impede their ability to win the next election? I think they’re wrong about that. Canadians are tired of JT, anf he appears to be compromised. Time will tell.

  6. Dawn Mills says:

    Up next should be an investigation into Saudi Arabia’s extremist Wahhabi sect’s financial assistance for the establishment of mosques and schools across Canada.

  7. Steve T says:

    All very true, like most of your other observations about JT and this revolting administration.

    Yet I suspect most Canadians (or at least enough to achieve a minority government) will take the Liberal bait when they shriek “Healthcare! Hidden agenda! U.S. style politics! Deplorables!”. It’s worked for the Liberals for most of the past 100 years, and there’s no reason to believe a sufficient number of gullible Canadians will go for it again. We get the government we deserve.

    • Steve,

      I could be dead wrong but my sense of it is that most voting Canadians have already decided that the Trudeau Liberals richly deserve puke status.

    • Martin Dixon says:

      You forgot about abortion and the death penalty. They are raising abortion in QP with a lot of whatabout ridiculous answers to questions on other matters.

      Posting Ghandi’s quote again:

      “If there is an idiot in power, it is because those who elected him are well represented.”

  8. PJH says:

    Mr Kinsella…..now you’ve done it…..your social credit score will be zero, and I hope you don’t plan to visit ZhungGuo anytime soon.

    Anytime I am critical of ZhungGuo online….invariably a few days or so later I get strange phone calls in Mandarin….and of course, I can’t identify the caller. I also usually get a phone call from a high school friend of Chinese extraction whose children reside in ZhungGuo, as well. Coincidence…..I think not.

    ZhungGuo’s Communist Party is a bully that is bent on world hegemony, and which seeks revenge on the West for the “Hundred and twenty years of humiliation” We need to stand up to the Dragon, and its fentanyl exporting purveyors of misery.

    God Bless you for having the courage to do so.

    • PJH,

      Our fate quite literally rests with what Xi has between his ears: the PRC is a rapidly ascending dragon looking to go toe to toe with the only remaining superpower, be it on the trade, defence or national security front. China can either find its footing and nestle in, or they can opt for the path of overly aggressive action on the diplomatic, economic and self-defence fronts. To take the latter course is to inevitably provoke war between the Middle Kingdom and the West. God help us all if that happens.

    • PJH says:

      And as if on cue, I received another strange unidentifiable phone call in Mandarin today, after a somewhat terse online exchange with those who think the “Middle Kingdom” aka ZhungGuo can do no wrong.

      ZhungGuo CCP…..your intimidations do not frighten me, and I will continue to speak out against your plans for world hegemony whenever and wherever I can.

  9. Warren,

    This whole crisis takes what was once nothing more than political hyperbole and turns it into a deadly serious political question: has this government sold us out?

    Barring evidence to the contrary, it sure looks and FEELS that way for many Canadians.

  10. Dave says:

    Meh….in bigger news, Toronto and Quebec votes back a Trudeau minority government as there are concerns Pierre Poilievre is following through on Steven Harpers 200 year plan to ban abortion and gay marriage as reported by the CBC.

  11. Nelyam says:

    Re “across democracies”

    Any alleged expert or layperson who talks about “democracies” AS IF a real democracy ACTUALLY EXISTS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD (or has existed at any time in ‘human civilization’) is evidently repeating mindlessly and blindly the propaganda fed to them since they were a kid and/or is part of the (unconscious, ignorant, naive, willful) crowd who disseminates this total lie because any “democracy” of ‘human civilization’ has always been a covert structure of the rule of a few over the many operating behind the pretense name and facade of a “democracy”— see “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room” … http://www.CovidTruthBeKnown.com (or https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html)

    “All experts serve the state and the media and only in that way do they achieve their status. Every expert follows his master, for all former possibilities for independence have been gradually reduced to nil by present society’s mode of organization. The most useful expert, of course, is the one who can lie. With their different motives, those who need experts are falsifiers and fools. Whenever individuals lose the capacity to see things for themselves, the expert is there to offer an absolute reassurance.” —Guy Debord

    Isn’t it about time for anyone to wake up to the ULTIMATE DEPTH of the human rabbit hole — rather than remain blissfully willfully ignorant in a narcissistic fantasy land and play victim like a little child?

    “We’ll know our Disinformation Program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” —William Casey, a former CIA director=a leading psychopathic criminal of the genocidal US regime

    “Separate what you know from what you THINK you know.” — Unknown

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