OTTAWA – Security experts, human rights advocates and politicians are sounding the alarm about the renewal of a co-operation agreement between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and China’s Ministry of Public Security as troubling details surface at a foreign interference trial.
Court documents filed at the trial of alleged double agent William Majcher reveals that at least 25 Canadian residents were targeted by Chinese police under an anti-corruption program, which doubled as a tool of transnational repression. The affidavit shows that the Chinese nationals may have been forced to return to their homeland against their will to face punishment for alleged financial crimes.
Some of them would have faced life imprisonment, or even a death sentence.
The agreement signed in Beijing also included a memorandum of understanding (MOU) titled “Cooperation in Combating Crimes between the RCMP and the MPS.” In the joint statement, the two sides “committed to strengthening law enforcement co-operation to combat corruption and transnational crimes, including telecommunication and cyber fraud and illegal synthetic drugs in accordance with their respective laws.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Vancouver NDP MP Jenny Kwan wrote an open letter to express serious concerns about the government’s lack of transparency in signing the MOU.
Kwan wrote that it is “troubling” that the federal government has “declined to proactively disclose the police co-operation agreement, despite its significant implications for public safety, civil liberties, diaspora communities and national sovereignty.”
In a social media post, she noted that other agreements the prime minister signed while in Beijing were released publicly, such as an economic and trade co-operation roadmap.
