By Judy Haiven
Is foreign interference in Canadian elections really the fault of the Chinese? I don’t think so. What about Israel? Last time I checked, Canadian governments – Liberal and Tory – now and in decades gone by have all kow-towed to what Israel wants, and tend to agree with the US which always sticks up for Israel.
But, according to CBC Radio One’s The House, we are now in the second stage of the “foreign interference” war with China and, frankly, the war on Chinese Canadians.
Turns out in April 2017, Canadian senator Victor Oh (who retired in June 2024) took a free trip to China courtesy of the Chinese government. Now, that translates to “political interference” in Canadian elections and political affairs.
A 2017 investigation of Oh’s China trip revealed that he had inveigled two other Tory senators, Don Plett and Leo Housakos, to go on the free junket with him. In 2020, the Senate’s ethics watchdog found Victor Oh did indeed break the Senate’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics code by accepting an all-expenses paid trip to China for himself. But the watchdog decided neither Plett nor Housakos had broken the rules because Senator Oh told them he would “take care” of the trip.
But if Conflict of Interest rules dictate that Senators and also members of the House of Commons are not supposed to take presents such as free trips to a foreign country – how can it be that more than 800 MPs and Senators have taken freebie trips to Israel in the last 50 years? Read on.
Chinese Interference?
Back to the Chinese interference for a minute. The big news is that Chinese-born Liberal MP Han Dong (Don Valley North) encouraged Chinese international students in his Toronto riding to vote at his 2019 and 2021 nomination meetings. Nothing illegal in that; nor was it against any rules. Turns out temporary and permanent residents are allowed to join political parties and vote for candidates, but only Canadian citizens can vote in a Canadian election. After the nomination meeting, the federal security service urged the Liberals to reverse the selection. “CSIS was concerned that Han Dong was connected to the People’s Republic of China’s foreign interference network in Canada,” Global News says, citing an unnamed source.
This is part of the anti-Chinese racism which has mushroomed in Canada and dates back to the earlier days of Trudeau’s regime. When we add the Meng Wanzhou arrest, the fallout from China’s imprisoning two Canadians as spies, and then the years of COVID and the notion that the disease started in China – we can see that the Chinese “interference” issue has generated anti-Chinese backlash and racism against Chinese Canadians.
Background
In December 2018, telecom giant Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver. The US had charged her with corporate fraud and demanded she be extradited to the US. Once again, Canada did the US’s bidding.
Canada arrested her and 10 days later, China arrested and imprisoned two Canadian businessmen whom China said were spies. The two men (the Two Michaels) were imprisoned in China for nearly three years until the US dropped its case against Wanzhou and BC could drop the extradition request.
In 2021, the Two Michaels were sent back to Canada and Meng Wanzhou returned to China. This began the nasty relations between Canada and China – of course with the US lurking in the background.
What exactly China’s political interference in Canadian elections was or is, and how serious, remain to be seen. Former Governor General David Johnston, who was appointed to look into the interference, said in a May 2023 report there were “serious shortcomings” in the way intelligence is discussed and dealt with by security agencies to the government.
However, Johnston did not find examples of ministers, the prime minister or their offices knowingly or negligently failing to act on intelligence, advice or recommendations.
After the oppositions’ bullying and opposition to the first report, the feds struck a commission of inquiry on foreign (read Chinese) interference under Marie-Josée Hogue. In an interim report in May 2024, commissioner Hogue said though it was possible that outcomes in a small number of ridings were affected by meddling, this cannot be said with certainty. Foreign interference by China did not affect the overall results of the 2019 and 2021 general elections won by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
What about political interference by Israel?
But one thing is for sure. When it comes to potential political interference, the elephant in the room is Israel. More than 73 sitting MPs (22 percent) and more than 800 MPs and senators since 1973 have taken free junkets to Israel courtesy of the Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs (CIJA). In fact, in July 2023, Kody Blois, MP for Kings-Hants in Nova Scotia, accompanied by his wife, went on a free trip to Israel – the value of which was $24,000 according to The Maple.
Then there are the actions of the pro-Israel lobby. The Troika – CIJA, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and B’nai Brith – have ongoing relationships with MPs and are influential with both the Liberals and the Tories. For example, between Oct 7, 2023 and April 2024, CIJA has conducted 107 separate lobbying sessions, 82 of which included discussion of “international relations.”
Last time I checked, Israel had killed more than 42,000 mainly civilians in its 11-month war of terror on Gaza. At the same time, Israel’s war on the West Bank, where Israel has murdered more than 600, and its latest war on Lebanon are massacres that the Canadian government is supporting – covertly but mainly overtly. I say overtly because as recently as September 18, Canada joined 42 other UN member states to abstain from a non-binding motion demanding Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within a year. At the UN, 124 countries supported the motion while the US, Argentina, Israel and the Marshall Islands were among the 14 nations to vote against the motion.
In a move that likely meant to placate pro-Palestinian activists calling for an arms embargo, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced in mid-September that Canada suspended 30 permits to export military supplies to Israel. Of course, there are more than “200 valid permits to ship to Israel right now, so 30 suspensions falls well short of the total arms embargo activist organizations – not to mention 22 Liberal MPs – have demanded,” according to CBC journalist Janyce McGregor. She also notes an August 13 news release in which the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the “General Dynamics facility in Quebec [is] the ‘principal contractor’ on an Israeli government request for mortar cartridges.”
Doesn’t that undermine Canada’s pledge not to equip Israel in any new ways as the war on Gaza, the genocide against Palestinians, continues apace?
Judy Haiven is a Halifax member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada. She can be reached at jhaiven <at> gmail.com
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