espionage
Non-citizens could choose Canada’s next prime minister thanks to Liberal Party rules
From LifeSiteNews
Liberals have refused to change their membership rule which allow non-citizens to vote in leadership races despite concerns that this could lead to foreign interference in selecting a prime minister to replace Trudeau
The Liberal Party has refused to change their membership rules for the upcoming leadership race, meaning Canada’s next prime minister could effectively be chosen by non-Canadians.
On January 7 the Liberals confirmed that their membership rules allowing non-citizens to vote in leadership races will remain intact despite concerns that this could lead to foreign interference in selecting a prime minister to replace Justin Trudeau, who has announced he is stepping down.
According to information shared with CBC News, the Liberal Party “doesn’t intend to change or reinterpret rules in its 2016 constitution that Elections Canada has suggested could make the vote be at least as vulnerable to such efforts as previous leadership races.”
Following Trudeau’s resignation, the Liberal Party is preparing for a leadership race. In addition to being the new Liberal leader, the winning candidate will automatically serve as prime minister at least until an election is held, which could be as late as October.
Currently, the Liberal Party rules do not require proof of Canadian citizenship to join the party, but only that the person “ordinarily live[s] in Canada or, for Canadians living abroad, be qualified as an elector who may vote in accordance with part 11 of the Canada Elections Act.”
Additionally, while voters must by 18 years-old to participate in the Federal Election, voters as young as 14-years-old can participate in the Liberal’s leadership race provided they “support the purposes of the Party.”
Many have pointed out that the loose rules will allow any number of non-citizens, from China, India, Russia or any part of the world, to effectively help select the interim prime minister.
According to Statistics Canada, there are now more than three million non-permanent residents living in Canada who are eligible to vote for the new Liberal leader and consequently, the prime minister.
Even some Liberal MPs have called for more strict rules to safeguard the upcoming leadership race, noting the potential dangers of their open policy.
The concerns regarding the integrity of the upcoming leadership race come after more than a year of evidence has been submitted to indicate foreign interference took place in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. In fact, reports show that China bragged it meddled in 41 candidates’ campaigns in Canada’s 2019 election, which saw Trudeau’s Liberal government re-elected to a second term.
In response to foreign interference claims, the Foreign Interference Commission was convened in late 2023 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 is headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who had earlier said she and her lawyers will remain “impartial” and will not be influenced by politics. In January 2024, Hogue said that she would “uncover the truth whatever it may be.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, documents from a federal inquiry looking at meddling in Canada’s past two elections by foreign state actors show that agents of the CCP allegedly worked at Elections Canada polling centers during the 2021 campaign.
To date, Trudeau has been coy and has never explicitly stated whether he was ever told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that CCP agents’ actions were in breach of the nation’s Elections Act.
A few months ago, the head of Canada’s intelligence agency testified under oath that he gave Trudeau multiple warnings that agents of the CCP were going after Conservative MPs, yet the prime minister has denied receiving these warnings.
espionage
Canada Election Monitor Detects PRC Cyber-Attacks on Liberal Leadership Candidate Freeland
Sam Cooper
The evolving nature of these operations may signal a broader effort to influence not only Canada’s general elections but also to shape the selection of the country’s next unelected Prime Minister.
Canada’s election security watchdog has uncovered a coordinated disinformation campaign linked to the People’s Republic of China targeting Chrystia Freeland, a leading candidate against Mark Carney for the Liberal Party leadership.
A statement released Friday by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) revealed that the digital attack was launched on WeChat, a dominant Chinese social media platform, and amplified through at least 30 accounts linked to pro-Beijing influence networks. Experts have previously identified these sources as aligned with PRC-backed information operations.
Freeland has faced some pressure within Liberal circles for asserting that Carney is the favored candidate of Trudeau’s elite staff and the Liberal establishment, after making the statements in a CBC interview.
SITE has briefed the Liberal Party’s executive and Freeland’s campaign team on its findings, emphasizing that it will continue monitoring foreign digital threats that seek to manipulate Canada’s democratic process.
“We will continue to monitor the digital information environment for foreign information manipulation and shine a light on hostile foreign state-backed information operations,” SITE said.
The findings recall a similar interference effort detected during the 2021 federal election, as documented in evidence before the Hogue Commission. At the time, analysts determined that an online disinformation campaign had sought to discourage Canadians of Chinese heritage from supporting the Conservative Party and its leader, Erin O’Toole. The campaign particularly targeted Kenny Chiu, the former Conservative candidate for Steveston-Richmond East, falsely portraying him as anti-China in a coordinated messaging effort across WeChat and Chinese-language media.
In both cases—the 2021 campaign against Conservative candidates and the emerging attack on Freeland—SITE observed coordinated messaging patterns originating from WeChat accounts and Chinese-language news sources tied to Beijing.
During the 2021 election, SITE assessed that false narratives about Chiu and the Conservative Party were widely circulated through WeChat, Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese counterpart), and other digital platforms. Three of the first Chinese-language news accounts to spread the false claims were members of a media partnership with China News Service, a PRC state-run agency operating under the United Front Work Department, Beijing’s key overseas influence arm.
SITE’s findings suggest a similar strategy may now be in play, with Freeland’s leadership campaign becoming a new focal point for online manipulation. The disinformation campaign generated significant engagement, with WeChat articles attacking Freeland drawing more than 140,000 interactions between January 29 and February 3, 2025. SITE estimates between two to three million WeChat users globally may have been exposed to the narratives. The false claims appear to have originated from WeChat’s most popular news account, an anonymous blog previously linked by experts at China Digital Times to Beijing’s influence network, according to SITE’s statement.
SITE’s analysis suggests PRC-linked actors may have viewed the 2021 effort as successful, particularly given the defeat of Chiu and other Conservative candidates in ridings with large Chinese-Canadian populations. If Beijing perceived that operation as effective, it could explain why a similar approach is now targeting an internal leadership race within the governing Liberal Party.
The evolving nature of these operations may signal a broader effort to influence not only Canada’s general elections but also its leadership contests—ultimately shaping the selection of the country’s next unelected Prime Minister.
This story is developing. The Bureau will provide further updates as more details emerge.
The Bureau is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Business
Trudeau Promises ‘Fentanyl Czar’ and US-Canada Organized Crime Strike Force To Avert U.S. Tariffs
Under the looming threat of U.S. tariffs—framed by officials as a response to deadly fentanyl trafficking linked to Chinese precursors rather than a conventional trade dispute—Canada has moved swiftly to appease the White House.
This afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), announced the appointment of a “Fentanyl Czar” alongside a $1.3 billion border security plan. The initiative includes new helicopters, advanced surveillance technology, additional personnel, and closer coordination with U.S. agencies to stem the flow of fentanyl.
“I just had a good call with President Trump,” Trudeau wrote. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”
Trudeau also outlined plans to designate cartels as terrorist organizations, implement 24/7 surveillance, and launch a Canada–U.S. Joint Strike Force targeting organized crime and money laundering. He signed a new $200 million intelligence directive on fentanyl, asserting that these measures helped secure a 30-day pause on proposed tariffs against Canadian goods.
The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s imposition of sweeping new trade penalties: a 25% tariff on exports from Mexico and Canada and a 10% duty on Chinese goods. While those levies took effect two days ago, Trump has now granted Mexico a one-month reprieve—on the condition that President Claudia Sheinbaum deploy 10,000 soldiers to the northern border to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration.
In exchange, senior U.S. officials—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—will negotiate with their Mexican counterparts on a long-term solution before tariffs are reinstated.
Trump emphasized that Mexico’s forces were “specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal migrants,” stressing that cross-border cooperation was essential in tackling what U.S. authorities call a national drug crisis.
Markets initially tumbled over fears of an escalating tariff war among the world’s largest economies but rebounded on news of the temporary reprieve for Mexico and Canada. Now, both governments face a critical deadline.
More to come.
The Bureau is a reader-supported publication.
To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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