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Government-shackled interference inquiry unlikely to get answers

Published

12 months ago

10 minute read

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.

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espionage

Non-citizens could choose Canada’s next prime minister thanks to Liberal Party rules

Published on January 9, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

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.   

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.   

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espionage

Vegas Cybertruck bomber may be whistleblower

Published on January 5, 2025

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A guest Friday’s “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast says Las Vegas Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger emailed him with an incredible claim.

Retired Army Intelligence Officer Sam Shoemate said Livelsberger claimed he was being followed by Homeland Security because they know he’s trying to reveal a high-level coverup of “advanced drone technology” launched by China.

During the podcast, The Shawn Ryan Show discovered they’d also received an email from Livelsberger. On the X platform, Ryan released the email as revealed by Shoemate.

The suspected Cybertruck bomber said he’s releasing this information to reveal the existence of “gravitic propulsion systems” which civilians have recently recognized as “drones” flying over the US east coast.

Livelsberger says only the US and China have this technology and China is demonstrating that they could use it. He calls these systems the “most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed” and says “China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast”.

 

The entire email reads:

“In case I do not make it to my decision point or on to the Mexico border I am sending this now. Please do not release this until 1JAN and keep my identity private until then.

“First off I am not under duress or hostile influence or control. My first car was a 2006 Black Ford Mustang V6 for verification.

“What we have been seeing with ‘drones’ is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US. Only we and China have this capability. Our OPEN location for this activity in the box is below.

“China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon for sigint and isr, which are also part of the integrated coms system. There are dozens of those balloons in the air at any given time.

“The so what is because of the speed and stealth of these unmanned AC, they are the most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed. They basically have an unlimited payload capacity and can park it over the WH if they wanted. It’s checkmate.

“USG needs to give the history of this, how we are employing it and weaponizing it, how China is employing them and what the way forward is. China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast.

“I’ve been followed for over a week now from likely homeland or FBI, and they are looking to move on me and are unlikely going to let me cross into Mexico, but won’t because they know I am armed and I have a massive VBIED. I’ve been trying to maintain a very visible profile and have kept my phone and they are definitely digitally tracking me.”  (VBIED – vehicle-borne explosive device)

Livelsberger’s email concludes by alleging the coverup of “war crimes” in Afghanistan’s Nimruz Province that “killed hundreds of civilians in a single day.”

He begs the recipients of his email to verify his claims so the public receives this information without any influence from government agencies.   “You need to elevate this to the media so we avoid a world war because this is a mutually assured destruction situation.”

In the Shawn Ryan podcast interview, Sam Shoemate suggested Livelsberger might actually still be alive.

Considering all this potentially explosive information, podcaster Shawn Ryan said he’s “disappearing” for a while.

The full interview, which as of Saturday afternoon has been viewed nearly 12 million times on X and nearly 4 million times on YouTube, can be seen here:

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