Canadian intelligence reported in 2021 that Beijing planned to interfere in Canada’s next federal election with disinformation suggesting the Conservatives “will follow the path of … Donald Trump”—a narrative now echoed in a clandestine dirty tricks operation exposed inside Prime Minister Mark Carney’s campaign.

A 2021 CSIS intelligence bulletin marked “Secret,” warned that Chinese consular officials planned to influence future Canadian elections by portraying Conservative politicians as “Trump-like” and hostile to immigrants. The document has been redacted by The Bureau.

The warning comes from a classified CSIS bulletin dated December 20, 2021 and marked Secret, distributed to Canadian departments including Global Affairs Canada, the Privy Council Office, the Communications Security Establishment, and Five Eyes intelligence partners. The report was based on information from Chinese consular officials in Canada.

According to the CSIS assessment, a consulate official in mid-November 2021 discussed how Chinese influence in federal ridings with large Chinese-Canadian populations had proven effective, and laid out a forward-looking strategy to shape future electoral outcomes. The official reportedly stated:

“Ethnic Chinese voters should be told that if the CPC wins a federal election, the CPC will follow the path of former United States President Donald Trump and ban Chinese students from certain universities or educational programs. This will threaten the future of the voters’ children.”

The consulate official also suggested that during Canada’s next federal election, the message should be circulated that the Conservative Party of Canada “is critical of the PRC and opposed to individuals from mainland China.” The remarks were made shortly after Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won a minority government in the fall of 2021.

CSIS concluded that PRC officials believed Chinese immigrants were relatively easy to influence toward Beijing’s geopolitical goals and could be mobilized to oppose Canada’s Conservative Party. The bulletin describes a broader context in which Chinese state actors sought to paint Canadian Conservatives as hostile to immigrants, aligned with Trump-style nationalism.

The Bureau’s analysis suggests that if Chinese state-linked actors intended to repeat this narrative in the 2025 federal campaign, they would find their narrative echoed by the Liberal Party’s own war room tactics.

Prime Minister Mark Carney this morning acknowledged wrongdoing inside his campaign, following revelations that Liberal operatives had planted fake political buttons at a major Conservative conference in an effort to smear Pierre Poilievre’s campaign as a Trump-style threat to Canada.

The Liberal Party has attempted to downplay the scandal, calling it an instance of overzealous political operatives getting “carried away.” But the parallels to Beijing’s 2021 disinformation strategy—as outlined in the CSIS bulletin—raise broader concerns over domestic political campaigns echoing or amplifying hostile state narratives.

The disinformation scandal was first exposed by CBC News on Sunday, April 13. According to the report, two Liberal staffers attended the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference last week. Observers have noted ticket prices for the event cost hundreds of dollars, suggesting the Liberal infiltration was well planned and resourced. They scattered buttons reading “Stop the Steal” along with buttons favouring Alberta secession movements and other political messages that would suggest Pierre Poilievre’s campaign is attracting MAGA-like extremists in Canada that may be open to Trump’s earlier jibes of turning Canada into a “51st State.”

The aim was to create the appearance of Trumpian division and election denialism within Poilievre’s camp.

Asked about the scandal at a press conference today, Prime Minister Carney said: “The responsible people have been reassigned within the campaign.”

But the half-apology has failed to quell public concern.

The concerns extend well beyond party politics, in The Bureau’s analysis. Two weeks ago, Canada’s Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force identified a sophisticated PRC information campaign targeting Chinese-language social media in Canada. On March 10 and March 25, the WeChat account Youli-Youmian, linked to Chinese Communist Party propaganda efforts, shared widely amplified posts portraying Mark Carney in a highly favorable light.

One post, titled “The US encounters a ‘tough guy’ Prime Minister,” framed Carney as standing up to Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

According to SITE, both posts were rapidly boosted by a coordinated cluster of 30 smaller WeChat accounts, garnering between 85,000 and 130,000 interactions and as many as three million views. SITE attributed the surge to a broader PRC information operation.

At the SITE briefing Monday, The Bureau questioned whether the task force would investigate the Carney campaign’s “ButtonGate” scandal as potential domestic election interference—especially given the operation echoed a PRC disinformation playbook from 2021 that falsely depicted the Conservatives as Trump-style extremists. The question also raised whether SITE had the capacity to examine any crossover between this Liberal narrative and a broader foreign campaign.

A SITE spokesperson replied cautiously: “National security agencies take any attempt to undermine our democracy really seriously… Not all disinformation is foreign-backed… but SITE is committed to informing Canadians when emerging issues can be linked to foreign state actors.”

The official did not say whether SITE would investigate the Liberal Party’s role in the disinformation campaign.

In the same session, a National Post reporter asked SITE whether they were minimizing the implications of PRC-linked social media accounts appearing to promote Mark Carney.

“There was a lot of talk about the information that was put out,” the reporter said. “But there was also a fair amount of interpretation by many online that viewed the posts in question on WeChat as China endorsing Mark Carney or promoting the Liberals… trying to rig the election, or at the very least, push Chinese Canadians to vote for Mr. Carney.”

SITE responded by emphasizing its broader framing: “In our briefing, as you know, we cited both positive and negative posts. What was and remains important for us is that the Youli-Youmian account is linked to a foreign state, and the information it shared may be used to manipulate. That was what we felt was important to get across.”

Dan Knight

A CCP-linked propaganda campaign boosted Mark Carney, but instead of sounding the alarm, the CBC cast him as the victim. The truth? He wasn’t targeted—he was the beneficiary.

So let’s stop pretending. The headlines, the bureaucratic spin, the carefully worded talking points—none of it changes what actually happened. This week the Canadian government just confirmed what they’ve been denying for years: the Chinese Communist Party is interfering in our elections. Not in theory. Not in the abstract. Right now. In real time.

And who’s the beneficiary? It’s not the opposition. It’s not the people calling out foreign interference. It’s not the Conservative candidates getting smeared, doxxed, or targeted by digital hit jobs. No, the beneficiary is the man now leading the Liberal Party. The man who was handpicked to replace Trudeau and keep the globalist machine running smoothly. That man is Mark Carney.

According to the SITE Task Force—the very same group tasked with monitoring foreign interference—a CCP-linked WeChat account ran coordinated messaging in Chinese-language communities across Canada. That messaging didn’t attack Carney. It elevated him. It portrayed him as a strong, capable leader, someone who would stand up to the United States. That’s not an attack. That’s not foreign meddling meant to sow chaos. That’s targeted influence designed to shape an outcome. To tip the scale.

So what did the press do with this information? CBC, CTV, the Globe and Mail—they all ran with the same disingenuous line: “Chinese information operation focused on Carney.” Focused? That’s the best they could do? He wasn’t the focus. He was the favorite. He wasn’t the target. He was the chosen candidate. The state broadcaster, which receives $1.2 billion a year in taxpayer funds, chose to frame a CCP influence operation that benefited Carney as if he were the victim. And they wonder why trust in media is collapsing.

Meanwhile, who was actually targeted? Joe Tay. A Conservative candidate. A Canadian citizen. And someone with the courage to speak out against Beijing’s repression. For that, the Hong Kong government—acting on orders from the CCP—put a bounty on his head. HK$1 million for his arrest. And then, in an absolutely disgraceful moment, Liberal MP Paul Chiang repeated that bounty in public, in Canada, saying someone could take Tay to the Chinese consulate and claim the reward.

What was Carney’s response? He called it a “lapse in judgment.” A “teachable moment.” Chiang remained a candidate until the scandal became too big to ignore and the resignation came—conveniently timed just before midnight. And not once—not once—did Carney publicly condemn the CCP. Not once did he say the name of the regime running operations to influence Canadian politics. Not once did he call out the foreign government targeting his opponents and helping him.

Why would he? He doesn’t want the interference to stop. He and the Liberals have benefited from it before—just ask Han Dong in Don Valley North—and they’re benefiting from it now. This isn’t hesitation. It’s a pattern. A Liberal MP parrots a CCP bounty and they defend him. A CCP media operation boosts their leader and they stay quiet. CSIS warns them about Beijing’s interference and they bury it. Every time, they play dumb. Every time, it’s the same excuse: no impact, no problem, nothing to see here.

But Canadians are not blind. They can see what’s happening. They can see who benefits. And they’re starting to realize that this isn’t about safeguarding democracy. It’s about safeguarding a narrative. Because when your elections are being massaged by foreign powers, and your media is too compromised to call it out, the system doesn’t just have a problem. It has a crisis.

And if we don’t deal with it now—if we let Beijing call the shots and let the CBC clean up the mess—then we’re not a democracy anymore. We’re a client state. And the country we thought we had will be gone. Quietly. Carefully. And permanently.