OTTAWA — Threats of violence, isolation, coercion and even hacking of private digital gadgets. These are simply a number of the instruments utilized by overseas governments together with China, Russia, India and Iran to hush dissent in Canadian ethnic diasporas — say six group members who testified on the overseas interference inquiry on Wednesday.
It was first day of a second set of hearings for the Public Inquiry into Overseas Interference (PIFI) presided over by commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue.
The inquiry will host two weeks of hearings into alleged interference by China, Russia, India and different overseas actors on the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, in addition to the circulation of data and intelligence amongst federal officers and politicians.
The primary witnesses had been members of the Uyghur, Iranian, Russian, Sikh and Chinese language diasporas in Canada. They detailed how governments of their respective international locations of origin attempt to repress dissenting speech and actions amongst critics overseas.
Uyghur Rights Advocacy Venture consultant Mehmet Tohti mentioned China’s repression of its Uyghur minority results in “complete isolation” for a lot of overseas critics, who discover it’s unsafe to journey again to their homeland and go to their households lest they face arrest. He mentioned he had been threatened a number of occasions whereas in Canada.
He additionally advised a narrative of how he obtained a name from Chinese language police in 2023, proper earlier than MPs voted to resettle 10,000 Uyghurs fleeing persecution in China, telling him that his mom and two of his sisters had been useless.
“I confirmed that my mom was useless on the age of 76, and nonetheless I don’t know when or even when she has a grave,” he mentioned. “My two sisters, I additionally don’t know when… they had been killed.”
“Transnational repression is a really massive a part of overseas interference,” he added, noting that he can’t even journey to many central Asian international locations due to China’s affect within the area.
Article content material
Beneficial from Editorial
-
Threats in opposition to politicians changing into more and more prevalent, intelligence report says
-
Terry Glavin: The elephants within the room on the overseas interference inquiry
Hamed Esmaeilion, a consultant of the Affiliation of Households of Flight PS752 that was shot down by two Iranian missiles in January 2020, mentioned he has personally been threatened by Iranian regime officers in Canada.
He mentioned he was disconcerted by the variety of former prime Iranian regime officers he says have been welcomed into Canada by being granted vacationer visas and even residency standing.
He pointed to the previous infamous Tehran police chief Morteza Talaei, who was noticed in 2021 understanding in a Toronto-area gymnasium, and Seyed Salman Samani, Iran’s former deputy inside minister who was lately ordered to be deported due to his boss’s involvement in ordering police to brutally repress protests in opposition to Iran’s “morality police” in 2019.
Grace Dai Wollensak of the Falun Dafa Affiliation of Canada mentioned the Chinese language Communist Celebration has a rising community of “covert brokers” in opposition to which Canada should act urgently. Her group represents Falun Gong minorities, that are persecuted in China.
The brokers are creating an “invisible however persuasive hand, controlling Canadian communities to serve the CCP’s pursuits and eroding Canadian values,” she mentioned.
Article content material
The inquiry additionally heard from Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance director Yuriy Novodvorskiy, Sikh Coalition consultant Jaskaran Sandhu and Toronto Affiliation for Democracy in China co-chair Winnie Ng.
Sandhu mentioned the Sikh group has confronted transnational repression from the Indian authorities for 4 many years.
“Indian consulates act as a hub for espionage and overseas interference and transnational repression focusing on the Sikh group,” he advised the inquiry. “They’ve, stationed in Canada, intelligence officers whose sole objective is to observe and goal the Sikh group.”
Over the subsequent three weeks, the fee will hear from practically 50 witnesses over 13 days together with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a coterie of federal ministers, and the heads of the RCMP, CSIS, CSE and quite a few authorities departments, in addition to officers and present and former MPs from the Conservative, NDP and Liberal events.
Commissioner Hogue mentioned on the onset of the listening to that though the inquiry will try to make as a lot info from the inquiry public as potential, some should stay secret as a result of Canada’s adversaries can be watching intently.
“Any info publicly disclosed as a part of this investigation will change into identified not solely to Canadians, but in addition to states and organizations with pursuits against these of Canada. It’s a actuality that the fee should take into consideration,” inquiry Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue mentioned in a gap assertion.
Hogue mentioned that two of the inquiry’s largest challenges are extraordinarily tight timelines and balancing transparency with the necessity to defend delicate info. The inquiry started in January and is anticipated to complete in mid-April. Earlier public inquiries into problems with nationwide concern have generally taken years.
“Nobody can moderately problem the truth that the general public, and journalists who work to tell the general public, have a vested curiosity in realizing whether or not Canada’s democratic processes have been focused by overseas actors and whether or not their actions had an influence on election integrity,” Hogue mentioned.
“Alternatively, … a public inquiry that will reveal extremely delicate info may, relying on the circumstances, do extra hurt than good,” she added.
Hogue cited info regarding sources of intelligence, technique of accumulating it or the targets of intelligence as examples of data that should keep secret.
Nationwide Publish
cnardi@postmedia.com
Get much more deep-dive Nationwide Publish political protection and evaluation in your inbox with the Political Hack publication, the place Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s actually happening behind the scenes on Parliament Hill each Wednesday and Friday, solely for subscribers. Enroll right here.
Our web site is the place for the most recent breaking information, unique scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and join our day by day publication, Posted, right here.
Share this text in your social community
