espionage
Government-shackled interference inquiry unlikely to get answers

From the MacDonald Laurier Institute
By Ryan Alford
” the commission will receive a large portion of its testimony in secret with no cross-examination by the parties. Additionally, the government will have the last word not merely on what information is provided to the inquiry, but on what the commission can publish — even in its final report “
The foreign interference inquiry into the 2019 and 2021 elections (also known as the “Hogue commission,” named for Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue) is holding preliminary hearings this week. Those with experience with public inquiries in general, and with the Rouleau commission into the emergency powers declaration of 2022 in particular, can see it will be a failure.
When it comes to public inquiries, the government makes the rules, and when it says, “Heads I win, tails you lose,” the only winning move is not to play. Those rules, written by the cabinet in the form of a public inquiry commission’s mandate and terms of reference, allow the government to reveal and restrict information about its own failures as it sees fit.
The most important feature of the Hogue commission’s mandate is the restriction on the information provided to the inquiry: the terms of reference state plainly that if the government didn’t provide a confidential cabinet document to Special Rapporteur David Johnston back in 2023 when he was tasked with looking into election interference without the authority of a public inquiry, the commissioner won’t see it, either.
The details that made it into Johnston’s final report were far more tame than what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) allegedly told former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole when he led the party. O’Toole told Parliament that CSIS informed him that he had been targeted in an ongoing campaign of misinformation coordinated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When asked, Johnston said that was news to him. (Subsequently, NDP MP Jenny Kwan added that CSIS had told her she was an “evergreen” target of Beijing.)
When Johnston was confronted about the discrepancies, he merely noted that the information CSIS revealed had not been made available to him at the time, and he had “reported on what was made available to us … the amount of information available was an ocean and we saw a very large lake.” (Unfortunately, Johnston could not see any issue with the political equivalent of investigating the causes of the sinking of the Titanic when directed to do so at Lac Tremblant).
Johnston concluded, based on the information provided to him by the government, that he could not attribute the misinformation spread during the 2021 election to state actors. Information coming from many unofficial sources — and via leaks — makes this untenable. Evidence also shows that Chinese Canadians in Richmond, B.C. were bombarded with slander targeting local Conservative MP Kenny Chiu on the WeChat social media platform.
The Hogue commission should add to its focus the activities of Senator Yuen Pau Woo — and the government’s knowledge of these activities. However, once again, the commission’s ability to investigate hinges entirely on the government’s willingness to hand over sensitive and potentially incriminating documents, and for those targeted by misinformation to speak freely knowing that information will be available immediately to those they named as their persecutors.
Until 2022, Woo served as the facilitator (i.e., caucus leader) of the Liberal-aligned Independent Senators Group. In a decision made on Dec. 4, Commissioner Hogue granted Woo the right to participate in the foreign interference inquiry as an intervenor, as “he will contribute the perspective of a political figure working to address issues of foreign interference while advocating for a community that risks being stigmatized or negatively impacted by counter-interference measures, whether proposed or put in place.”
Woo has been accused of adopting the CCP’s rhetoric but has denied working for China. Groups targeted by CCP intelligence operations in Canada (including Uyghurs and Hong Kongers) opposed Woo’s participation in the interference inquiry (along with that of politicians Han Dong and Michael Chan) on the ground that he would be allowed “access to sensitive information shared by witnesses or victims (and) will deter witnesses from speaking freely.”
Their concerns were aired around the same time as a report emerged alleging Woo had pledged to support the United Front, which is an arm of the CCP. In December, investigative journalist Sam Cooper reported that a recording existed of Woo briefing the Canada Committee 100 Society — a Chinese cultural organization with ties to the United Front according to declassified American intelligence — in May of 2020. In that recording, Woo advised members that groups officially listed by the CCP as United Front Work Department (UFWD) organizations cannot (and presumably, will not) be considered agents of the Chinese state.
However, a Privy Council Office report from 2020 shows that the government knew the CCP’s UFWD had allegedly coordinated electoral interference through community groups. The report specified that the UFWD had facilitated electoral interference in 2019, noting that “the UFWD’s extensive network of quasi-official and local community and interest groups allow it to obfuscate communication and the flow of funds between Canadian targets and Chinese officials.” Despite all this, Woo had reassured the Canada Committee 100 Society that they could continue their activities.
It is already a given that the commission will receive a large portion of its testimony in secret with no cross-examination by the parties. Additionally, the government will have the last word not merely on what information is provided to the inquiry, but on what the commission can publish — even in its final report, as the commission’s terms of reference refer to disclosure procedures that clearly implicate the attorney general’s power to withhold information for the purpose of national security.
This is why the first two days of the inquiry were devoted to managing expectations about how the public’s right to know would need to be “balanced” against national security confidentiality and all the other reasons the government will invoke to justify withholding and censoring information.
It is ironic that at an inquiry made possible by whistleblowers within CSIS, those at the commission will be classed “persons personally bound to secrecy” by an order-in-council issued in tandem with the mandate of the Hogue commission. Most won’t mind; the Hogue commission hired a number of personnel who did yeoman service at the Rouleau commission, including its lead counsel and research council chair.
This time around, there have been no grand public assurances that the government is committed to providing unprecedented access to information. Rather, we’ve been put on notice that obfuscation and dithering over confidentiality will be used to beat us down.
Some parties, like the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, have already indicated they have had enough of the charade. Others, including those like members of Parliament Michael Chong and Jenny Kwan, who were the victims of shocking hostility and ineptitude from the CCP and the government, will likely persist, although it is already clear that they deserve much more information, and much better treatment from the Hogue commission.
As for myself, I can only say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Ryan Alford is a professor in the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
2025 Federal Election
Canadian officials warn Communist China ‘highly likely’ to interfere in 2025 election

From LifeSiteNews
The Canadian government believes China will use specific tools ahead of the April election such as AI and social media to specifically target ‘Chinese ethnic, cultural, and religious communities in Canada using clandestine and deceptive means.’
Canadian officials from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government will most likely try to interfere in Canada’s upcoming federal election.
Vanessa Lloyd, chair of the task force, observed during a March 24 press conference that “it is expected that the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, will likely continue to target Canadian democratic institutions and civil society to advance its strategic objectives.”
SITE is made up of representatives of multiple Canadian departments and agencies that have a security mandate.
Lloyd’s regular job is as the Deputy Director of Operations, second in charge, for Canada’s spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
According to Lloyd, officials from China as well as CCP proxies will be “likely to conduct foreign interference activity using a complex array of both overt and covert mechanisms.”
Her warning comes after the final report from the Foreign Interference Commission concluded that operatives from the CCP may have had a hand in helping to elect a handful of MPs in both the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections. It also concluded that China was the primary foreign interference threat to Canada.
The commission shed light on how CCP agents and proxies conduct election interference, with one method being to rally community groups to make sure certain election candidates are looked down upon.
According to Lloyd, it is “highly likely” that China will engage in certain election meddling using specific tools such as AI.
“The PRC is highly likely to use AI-enabled tools to attempt to interfere with Canada’s democratic process in this current election,” she noted, adding that China will also use social media as well to “specifically target Chinese ethnic, cultural, and religious communities in Canada using clandestine and deceptive means.”
Lloyd also noted that the Indian government could also be involved in meddling, as it has the “intent and capability” to “assert its geopolitical influence.”
Canada will hold its next federal election on April 28 after Prime Minister Mark Carney triggered it on Sunday.
As reported by LifeSiteNews earlier in the month, a new exposé by investigative journalist Sam Cooper claims there is compelling evidence that Carney and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are strongly influenced by an “elite network” of foreign actors, including those with ties to communist China and the World Economic Forum.
In light of multiple accusations of foreign meddling in Canadian elections, the federal Foreign Interference Commission was convened last year to “examine and assess the interference by China, Russia, and other foreign states or non-state actors, including any potential impacts, to confirm the integrity of, and any impacts on, the 43rd and 44th general elections (2019 and 2021 elections) at the national and electoral district levels.”
The commission was formed after Trudeau’s special rapporteur, former Governor General David Johnston, failed in an investigation into CCP allegations after much delay. That inquiry was not done in public and was headed by Johnston, who is a “family friend” of Trudeau.
Johnston quit as “special rapporteur” after a public outcry following his conclusion that there should not be a public inquiry into the matter. Conservative MPs demanded Johnston be replaced over his ties to China and the Trudeau family.
Daily Caller
CIA Agents Posing As State Department Officials Outnumbered Real Ones, JFK Doc Shows

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Emily Kopp
Several foreign embassies housed more Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents posing as genuine State Department officials between 1950 to 1960, according to a document found in the more than 63,000 pages relating to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, released to the public by the Trump administration Tuesday evening.
CIA mission chiefs under diplomatic cover sometimes wielded more influence than the ambassadors, even advocating policies in conflict with official U.S. diplomacy, according to a June 10, 1961, memo. Kennedy was warned by historian Arthur Schlessinger Jr. in the document that CIA agents posing as State Department officials — so-called “Controlled American Sources” (CAS) — risked delegitimizing U.S. diplomacy.
“The effect is to further CIA encroachment on the traditional functions of State,” he wrote.
The CIA mission chief often exerted more power than the top diplomats, sometimes to conflicting ends, he said.
“On the day of President Kennedy’s inauguration, 47 percent of the political offices serving in United States Embassies were CAS,” the memo reads. “Sometimes the CIA mission chief had been in the country longer, has more money at his disposal, wields more influence (and is abler) than the Ambassador. Often he has direct access to the Prime Minister. Sometimes (as during a critical period [unreadable]) he pursues a different policy from that of the Ambassador. And he generally well known locally as the CIA representative.” (RELATED: Trump Administration Releases JFK Assassination Files)
Schlessinger’s 1961 memo to the president about the CIA — in which he advocated for a reorganization of the agency — had been of interest to historians and independent researchers as a Rosetta stone for understanding hostility between the former president and the nation’s foreign intelligence gathering services.
One section of the memo, however, spanning roughly 1.5 pages, remained redacted and was only revealed Tuesday night. The section described the CIA’s widespread use of diplomatic cover and its risks. Diplomatic cover was less expensive than other methods, quicker, and more attractive for agents, the memo states.
It’s unclear why the information has been concealed from the public for decades.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard praised the release of some 2,182 files related to the Kennedy presidency Tuesday and signaled that more documents could be released upon being released from court seal.
“President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency,” she said in a statement.
Schlessinger listed the number of CIA agents or “CAS personnel” populating embassies abroad.
“In the American embassy in Vienna, out of 20 persons listed in the October 1960 Foreign Service List as being in the Political Section, 16 are CAS personnel; of the 31 officers listed as engaging in political activities, over half are CAS,” he wrote. “Of the 13 officers listed in the political section of our embassy in Chile, 11 are CAS.”
Schlessinger expressed concern about the CIA’s dominance in the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
“In the Paris embassy today, there are 123 CIA people. CIA [in Paris] has long since begun to move into areas of political reporting typically occupied by State. The CIA men doing overt internal political reporting outnumber those in the Embassy’s political section by 18-2. CIA has even sought to monopolize contact with certain French political personalities, among them the President of the National Assembly,” he said.
The memo makes apparent reference to rumored CIA backing of the April 1961 Algiers putsch, in which generals unsuccessfully attempted a coup d’etat in French Algeria. French President Charles de Gaulle was moving Algeria toward self-determination and away from French control, which the generals opposed.
“CIA occupies the top floor of the Paris embassy, a fact well known locally; and on the night of the Generals’ [unreadable] in Algeria, passersby noted with amusement that the top floor was ablaze with lights,” he wrote. “I am informed that Ambassador Gavin was able to secure entrance that night to the CIA offices only with difficulty.”
Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation and a longtime advocate for declassification, had identified this redaction section of the memo as among his top priorities ahead of the new release.
Schlessinger suggested a review of policies instituted around Jan. 19, 1961 — the day before Kennedy’s inauguration. The historian had warned Kennedy about so-called “controlled American sources” becoming a permanent feature of the foreign service, while also advocating for the “steady reduction” of CIA agents at U.S. embassies.
“Before State loses control of more and more of its presumed overseas personnel, and before CAS becomes permanently integrated into the Foreign Service, it would seem important (a) to secure every ambassador the firm control over the local CAS station nominally promised in the [unreadable] Directive of January 19, 1961, and (b) to review the current CAS direction with an eye to a steady reduction of CAS personnel,” he wrote.
The degree to which diplomatic cover for CIA agents remains a threat to the State Department’s independence and legitimacy also remains unclear. A New York Times story on March 6 about the shuttering of some foreign embassies noted that the prospect of further cuts had “generated some anxiety within the Central Intelligence Agency.”
“The vast majority of undercover American intelligence officers work out of embassies and consulates, posing as diplomats, and the closure of diplomatic posts would reduce the C.I.A.’s options for where to position its spies,” the paper reported.
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