Pro-CCP groups aided Toronto mayor-elect

Toronto mayor-elect Olivia Chow says her campaign did not ask for help from nor coordinate with two pro-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) groups that "went all out" to support her election.  

Pro-Beijing groups claim credit for helping Olivia Chow win Toronto mayoralty. She says she was unaware | National Post - Tom Blackwell:

July 10, 2023 - "Two prominent community groups aligned with the Chinese government — including one that allegedly hosted a Chinese police station in Ontario — 'went all out' to support Chow’s push to be mayor, supplying numerous volunteers to the effort, a letter from one of the groups claims. A post last month on WeChat from Felicity Guo, deputy secretary general of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association (CTFBA), one of the two groups, urged followers to back Chow. The message was accompanied by a photo of Guo, Chow and another woman.

"'We did not ask for or co-ordinate any volunteers from either organization,' said Shirven Rezvany, a spokesman for Chow. He also pointed to the mayor-elect’s longstanding support for opponents of the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong, and her history of speaking out against Beijing’s human-rights abuses. Chow was supported during the campaign, in fact, by two of Toronto’s fiercest critics of the Chinese regime: Gloria Fung of Canada Hong Kong Link and Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China....

"[I]deological differences aside, the first election of a person of colour as Toronto mayor has been hailed as a long-overdue breakthrough in one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. But evidence that the Fuqing Business Association and the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO) worked to help get Chow elected on June 26 — even if their participation was not requested (or, arguably, needed) — raises further questions about the involvement of Beijing and its local allies in Canadian politics. Neither group responded to requests for comment.

"Jonathan Fon, a Toronto-based commentator and Beijing critic, said it’s unlikely Chow would have any motivation to promote groups aligned with the Chinese Communist Party. But 'it is a concern that those pro-Beijingers really have the capacity of mobilization among Chinese diasporas,' he said.... The groups’ participation is worrying because 'they work too close to the Chinese government,' said an immigrant from mainland China and small-business owner in the Greater Toronto Area, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.... 

"A series of intelligence leaks in recent months alleges Chinese interference in Canada’s federal and provincial politics, but there is evidence that Beijing targets municipal-level politicians, as well. A leaked handbook for cadres of the United Front Work Department — a huge branch of the Chinese Communist Party at the forefront of foreign influence and interference efforts — urged officials to 'work with' several candidates of Chinese descent elected in Toronto in the early 2000s. A recent Globe and Mail report cited a Canadian Security Intelligence Service briefing that said Chinese diplomats tried to get sympathetic candidates elected in last year’s Vancouver municipal vote, in part by using diaspora groups that represented Beijing’s interests. Ken Sim, who won the Vancouver mayor’s race in a landslide, has denied that such interference played any part in his victory.

"An article on the Canadian Chinese Media News site reprinted on June 28 a letter of congratulations to Chow from the Fuqing Business Association, named after a city in China’s Fujian province. [T]he letter says the Fuqing group and the CTCCO 'went all out to actively support, and sent a large number of volunteers to participate in the campaign,' according to a translation from Chinese. In the WeChat post, first reported by the blog Found in Translation, which monitors China’s influence, the Fuqing group’s Guo says 'let’s all support' Chow so she will win.

"The association’s ties to the Chinese regime are not hidden. Its website says it was set up under the guidance of the United Front and other Chinese government agencies. The association also lists its headquarters as a commercial office space it owns in Markham, Ont., that state-media in China listed as the site of one of three Fujian 'police service stations' in Ontario. The RCMP has said it is investigating the stations, amid allegations they are being used to intimidate Chinese expatriates here.... It has defended Beijing’s crackdown on democracy protesters in Hong Kong, while working with the local consulate to promote Beijing’s stance on Tibet, trying to bring the Chinese-outreach Confucius Institute to Toronto schools, and to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist revolution. Beijing’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office has praised the group on its website....

"National Post reported earlier that Chow also spoke to and received a gift from the Confederation of Ontario Newcomer Organizations, another group with close ties to Beijing.... National Post has [also] reported on non-Chinese politicians’ relationships with such groups, as well. It documented, for instance, how Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was introduced by a staunchly pro-Beijing regional councillor at an event earlier this year, and sat next to one of China’s most prominent local allies at the same gathering."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/pro-beijing-groups-claim-credit-for-helping-olivia-chow-win-toronto-mayoralty

Is Olivia Chow an Asset of the CCP? | Daniel Bordman | July 11, 2023:

Striking gov't workers shut down 3 Canadian ports

[Updated April 27, 2023]

Striking public servants block access to government buildings and key infrastructure | CP24 - Cindy Tran & Laura Osman, Canadian Press:

April 25, 2023 - "Federal ministers said Tuesday they are monitoring for blockades of critical roads and infrastructure as striking federal workers ... ramp[ed] up their picket efforts by disrupting traffic and limiting access to office buildings in downtown Ottawa. More than 150,000 federal public servants with the Public Service Alliance of Canada were on strike for the seventh straight day as their union representatives continued to negotiate with the government for a bigger wage increase and more flexibility to work remotely.

"Around the National Capital Region, hundreds of striking workers made their presence felt and heard, circling buildings, chanting through megaphones and blasting music throughout the morning. Hundreds of public servants marched across the Portage Bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau, Que., where some of the biggest federal buildings are located, holding up traffic for a short period Tuesday morning. Outside the Prime Minister's Office building and the Treasury Board headquarters a few blocks away, strikers limited entry to just one person every five minutes.

"The escalation in the strike activity comes after a promise by union president Chris Aylward that picket lines would move to more 'strategic locations,' including ports of entry where the strike would have a greater economic impact. PSAC said on Monday they 'shut down' the ports in Montreal, Vancouver and St. John's. 

"Federal ministers meeting in Ottawa for the "weekly cabinet meeting said they were keeping an eye out for blockades at critical infrastructure.... Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said he has been in contact with ports and airports to make sure they have contingency plans in place....

"Federal and provincial governments are more aware than ever about how vulnerable and critical major roadways and ports of entry are after last year's 'Freedom Convoy,' said Ambarish Chandra, an associate professor of economics at the University of Toronto. Demonstrators took over major roads in downtown Ottawa for three weeks and blockaded several border crossings for days in February 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and the federal government. The protest precipitated the first use of the federal Emergencies Act.... [F]ederal workers' decision to target points of critical infrastructure could inspire copycat events, said Chandra.."

Read more: https://www.cp24.com/news/striking-public-servants-block-access-to-government-buildings-and-key-infrastructure-1.6370885

The Andrew Lawton Show | Public servants are blocking infrastructure, and Trudeau doesn’t seem to mind | Andrew Lawton Show, True North:

April 25, 2023 - "The Public Service Alliance of Canada’s strike continues, and has escalated into blocks of government buildings and other infrastructure. Union president Chris Aylward even said striking public servants may go to ports of entry to maximize the economic impact.... In spite of this, no one in the federal government is talking about [using] the Emergencies Act, True North’s Andrew Lawton points out. Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano joins to talk about the latest strike news."

Read more: https://tnc.news/2023/04/25/alshow-public-servants-strike/

Canada's Supreme Court ducked Cambie case

Canada's Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of the Cambie case, a lawsuit over whether Canadians have a constitutional right to purchase health care outside their provincial gov't-run system.

Supreme Court can't be bothered to fix health care chaos it created | National Post:

April 15, 2023 - "Over the years, the Supreme Court of Canada has positioned itself as a staunch defender of rights Canadians didn’t even know they had. From abortion to prostitution to euthanasia, the court has shown a willingness ... to upend existing legal frameworks enacted by democratically elected legislatures based on a selective interpretation of the charter. Perhaps, then, it should be seen as a breath of fresh air that, late last week, the court declined to hear the appeal of a case arguing that access to private health services should be read into the charter’s Sec. 7 guarantee of the right to 'life, liberty and security of the person.' But it clearly highlights the type of cases the court is willing to take a bold stand on, and those that it’s more than happy to duck....

"We now live in a country where, if the substandard medicare system has left you in pain and suffering, you have a right to opt out by getting a doctor to pump your veins full of poison and end your life, but have no right to pay for the level of care you so desperately need. More importantly, in terms of legal consistency, we find ourselves in a situation in which the court has said that unnecessarily long wait times infringe the rights of Quebecers, but not those living in the rest of Canada.

"In its 2005 decision in Chaoulli v Quebec, the court ruled that the province’s ban on private health insurance for medically necessary services violated the Quebec charter’s guarantee to the “right to life, and to personal security, inviolability and freedom.” But the court could not agree on whether that extended to people outside La belle province because the [Canadian] charter’s Sec. 7 guarantee can be deprived 'in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice,' or by limits that can be 'demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society'.... 

"That contradiction has hung over the country for the past 18 years — 14 of which were spent by Dr. Brian Day, owner of Vancouver’s Cambie Surgery Centre, fighting to get some clarity. By refusing to hear Day’s appeal, the Supreme Court shirked its responsibility to sort out whether there really is a difference in law between Quebec and the other provinces. It also gave its de facto blessing to the idea that individual rights can be taken away, even if doing so causes demonstrable harms. Last summer, the British Columbia Court of Appeal declined to overturn lower court rulings in the case of Cambie Surgeries Corporation v British Columbia, but did so in such a roundabout and nonsensical way that it was almost begging for the country’s highest court to weigh in.

"At the initial trial, the court heard from numerous patients who had suffered poor health outcomes because they were forced to wait too long for medically necessary services. It was presented with a wealth of evidence showing that medical wait times were much longer in Canada than most other developed countries, and that the private surgery centres operating in B.C. had not caused harm to the public system. But these arguments were summarily dismissed.

"The Court of Appeal’s majority opinion chastised the trial judge for minimizing the harms caused by excessive wait times and failing to acknowledge that restrictions on paying to receive faster care can lead to death. This, the court agreed, is a violation of the charter’s guarantees of life and security of person....

"[N]onetheless [the court] ruled that such restrictions were in keeping with the principles of fundamental justice. To 'address the question as a matter of fundamental justice, for society as a whole,' the court made an abstract philosophical argument about what type of system people would choose if they had no idea what their lot in life would be and whether they would have the ability to pay. Which was odd, given that we can look to virtually any other advanced country to see how public and private health systems can coexist and thrive. And because we know that our system has merely limited access to private care to the ultra-rich, who can afford to travel to, and pay for care in, the United States....

"When the Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal, it usually means the lower court’s opinion becomes settled law. But in this case, we have a point of law that the Supreme Court itself could not agree on in 2005.... If ever there was a legal question calling out for a firm resolution from the highest court in the land, this is it."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-view-supreme-court-cant-be-bothered-to-fix-health-care-chaos-it-created

Canadian healthcare is failing - and the courts are making it worse, Canadian Constitution Foundation, April 17, 2023:

Canadian MP quits Liberal caucus over allegation

Canadian MP Han Dong has left the Liberal caucus after allegations that he advised the Chinese government to delay the release of two Canadians being held on spying charges.

Canada MP Han Dong steps down over Chinese interference claims | BBC News = Nadine Yousif:

Mar. 23, 2023 - "A Canadian member of parliament has stepped down from his party's caucus over allegations he was involved in Chinese political interference. Han Dong has been accused of lobbying a Chinese diplomat to keep two Canadians imprisoned in China. On Wednesday, Mr Dong said that he will leave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's governing Liberal Party to sit as an independent. Mr Dong has denied the allegations against him.

"'To all my colleagues in the parliament, media reports today quoting unverified and anonymous sources have attacked my reputation and called into question my loyalty to Canada,' Mr Dong, who was elected to parliament in 2019, said in an emotional evening address to Canada's House of Commons. 'Let me be clear, what has been reported is false. And I will defend myself against these absolutely untrue claims,' he said.

"In an unconfirmed report published by Canadian media outlet Global News citing anonymous national security sources, Mr Dong was accused of suggesting to China's consul-general in Toronto, Han Tao, that the release of two imprisoned Canadians should be delayed. The two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were imprisoned in China for more than 1,000 days on spying charges. The pair became known worldwide as the 'Two Michaels'. Their detention was widely viewed as retaliation for the 2018 arrest of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada at the request of the US....

"Mr Dong allegedly suggested to the diplomat in February 2021 that a release of the two Canadians would benefit the federal Conservative Party of Canada, which is seen as unfriendly to Beijing.

"Mr Kovrig and Mr Spavor were eventually released on 24 September, 2021 [four days after the 2021 federal election - gd].. The following day, Ms Meng was released from detention in Canada and returned to China following a deal with US prosecutors.

"The allegations against Mr Dong come as Canada grapples with wider accusations that China attempted to interfere in the last two federal elections and a mayoral election in Vancouver. A series of reports published in recent months by broadcaster Global News and newspaper The Globe and Mail, based on anonymous national security sources and leaked classified documents, indicated concerns that Beijing interfered by putting pressure on its consulates in Canada to support certain candidates. The alleged interference is not believed to have altered the outcome of either federal elections."

"Mr Trudeau has faced growing political pressure to launch a public inquiry and this month appointed an independent special rapporteur to look into the reports and determine whether such an inquiry is needed. A majority of MPs in the House of Commons on Thursday passed a non-binding motion calling for a public inquiry, with most Liberals voting against it. Mr Dong cast his vote in favour."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65054559

Something is rotten in the state of Canada

The longer the Chinese election interference story drags on, writes Terry Glavin in the National Post, "the more Canadians will notice that something rotten has spread through this country’s corporate sector, the universities, and the political class."

Pliant Liberals have helped China embed itself in Canada | National Post - Terry Glavin: 

March 15, 2023 - "With all their filibustering and obstructionist 'rapporteur' manoeuvres to draw attention away from the interference operations Beijing ran on their behalf during the 2019 and 2021 elections, the Trudeau Liberals might think they’re being clever. But they’re being too clever by half. The longer this drags out, the more light gets shed on the squalid and intimate relationship between the Liberals’ political base in this country’s wealthy and well-connected Mandarin-bloc hierarchy and the Ferrari-driving consiglieri of Beijing’s strong-arming and influence-peddling network in Canada. It’s the same circle of power....

"Canadians are beginning to understand what so many brave Chinese-Canadians have been warning about all these years. Slowly and steadily, the public is waking up to the alarms rung by Chinese political exiles, Hongkongers, Tibetans and Uyghur refugees, and by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. But it is a dispiriting education. It’s the brazenness of it that’s so galling, the flaunting of impunity in a thriving social scene of dodgy casino high-rollers and senators, Chinese diplomats and targets of RCMP money-laundering probes, MPs and mayors at banquets and ribbon-cuttings, weekend barbecues and campaign fundraising parties.

"The drawn-out focus on Beijing’s long reach into Canada’s political life doesn’t just cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Elections Act in keeping dirty foreign money out of local constituency associations, nomination races and federal campaign contests. It could cause even the most reasonable person to wonder whether the political connections that radiate outward from Beijing’s compradors in Canada might explain why this country’s anti-corruption laws seem to be dead letters.

"Only two weeks ago, in what B.C. Premier David Eby called a shocking example of the uselessness of Canada’s money-laundering laws, a special prosecutor was forced to fold up a multi-year investigation that tracked millions of dollars through Chinese bank accounts and B.C. casinos.... From May 2019 until last June, B.C.’s Cullen Commission took testimony that included security-camera footage of duffle bags full of cash — up to $800,000 in each transaction — carried into casinos to be converted into chips, with the chips then cashed in for 'clean' money. The inquiry concluded that billions of dollars every year was being laundered into B.C. real estate and luxury goods, mostly from Chinese accounts....

"[A] shadowy figure who kept popping up in the Lottery Corporation investigations that led to the Cullen Commission was Rong Xiang 'Tiger' Yuan, a former People’s Liberation Army officer famous in the Fraser Valley for his opulent five-acre compound where he keeps his fleet of McLarens, Lamborghinis, and allegedly one of the largest private gun collections in Canada. Only two months ago, Yuan was a celebrity guest at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., for a Lunar New Year banquet along with the notoriously Beijing-friendly Senator Yuen Pau Woo, China’s Vancouver consul-general Yang Shu, Liberal MPs Parm Bains and Wilson Miao, one current and one former provincial NDP cabinet minister, and an additional NDP MLA.

"Yuan and two of his associates also show up in a peculiar injection of money from Metro Vancouver Chinese donors to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Papineau riding association in 2016 totalling more than $60,000 over two days, as reported recently in Le Devoir and Le Journal de Montréal.

"It’s enough to make even the most level-headed observer get a bit paranoid, but you don’t need to construct any elaborate conspiracy theories about what’s been going on here. What’s been going on is a rapid population shift that has changed the ethnic and demographic makeup of Canada’s Chinese communities, and the Liberals’ alliance with the money-men in that new demographic niche.... Only two years ago the dominant non-official language in Metro Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area shifted from Cantonese to Mandarin, reflecting the influx of wealthy Chinese from the People’s Republic, many of whom are closely aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.

"The influence of Beijing’s loyalists in the new 'princeling' caste took off after the Trudeau Liberals came to power in 2015, with their overweening focus on ramping up political, economic and 'people to people' ties with China. The Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department — the superstructure devoted to enforcing compliance with the Politburo’s policies among overseas Chinese — closely aligned itself with Trudeau’s 'win-win' approach to Beijing.

"The United Front is deeply embedded in the Mandarin-bloc hierarchy, and that hierarchy is fabulously wealthy. There’s a lot of money sloshing around in Canadian politics — not just in Liberal coffers — and the United Front’s exertions run in everything from school board elections to municipal politics to provincial and federal politics....

"[A]s long as the Trudeau Liberals keeping dragging things out in hopes of keeping the skeletons well hidden in their closets, the more Canadians will notice that something rotten has spread through this country’s corporate sector, the universities, and the political class. And no Trudeau-appointed 'rapporteur' is going to root it out, because that’s not what the rapporteur is for."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/pliant-liberals-have-helped-china-embed-itself-in-canada

"How China Bought Canada’s Elections," China Uncensored, March 4, 2023:

Human rights NGO claims more Chinese police stations in Canada

NGO says it uncovered more Chinese police stations in Canada |Western Standard - Reid Small 

December 8, 2022 - "A Spanish NGO says it’s identified two more Chinese police service stations operating in Canada, one of which is in an unspecified Vancouver location while the other’s city is not disclosed. Safeguard Defenders, a self-proclaimed human rights advocacy group based out of Madrid released a new report this week identifying another 48 overseas Chinese police stations in addition to the 54 unveiled in a previous report. The group claims to have identified 102 stations in 53 countries, all of which are operated out of four Chinese jurisdictions: Nantong, Wenzhou, Qingtian, and Fuzhou.

"The Vancouver station's precise location is not known and it is said to be operated out of Wenzhou, a port city in China's Zhejiang province. Three previously identified Toronto stations are now being investigated by the RCMP, bringing the total number of stations reportedly operating in Canada to five. The city where the fifth station resides is not yet detailed.

"Chinese officials previously claimed the stations were used for administrative services, such as assisting with driver’s license renewals, but Safeguard says new information shows at least one 'illegal persuasion to return' operation run through a Wenzhou-controlled station in Paris. Persuasion tactics allegedly include imposing restrictions on family members and denying the target’s children in China education.

"Safeguard also claims to have identified at least 80 cases where the Nantong police system has assisted in capture or persuasion to return operations. 'This is in addition to already exposed operations in Spain and Serbia,' said Safeguard. 'This contradicts PRC authorities’ statements that the stations are merely providing administrative services.'

"At least 230,000 Chinese nationals suspected of fraud and telecommunications fraud returned to China as a result of persuade to return operations between April 2021 and July 2022. Safeguard further notes that China claims the returns were voluntary and that not all targets had committed crimes.

"The NGO has been viciously criticized by Chinese state-affiliated media for being 'entirely based on ideology,' while others within the Chinese media sphere suggest it is used by those with capital to satiate the West’s appetite for China smearing and, as a result, provide fertile ground for the execution of Washington’s regime change priorities. Safeguard's director, Swedish activist Peter Dahlin, founded the NGO's previous incarnation in 2009, which operated out of Beijing as the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group (China Action) until 2016 when Chinese authorities shut down the operation, forcing Dahlin to relocate to Madrid."

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/bc/ngo-says-it-uncovered-more-chinese-police-stations-in-canada/article_fdcb3ac2-773c-11ed-8cfc-5fa0deed9d45.html