China, Hong Kong and Foreign Interference

TADC Media Release: MP Jenny Kwan tabled petition e-5137 in solidarity with Hong Kong political prisoners and pro-democracy movement

In response to Hong Kong’s sentencing of 45 of the Hong Kong 47 pro-democracy activists, a coalition of community groups presented a petition yesterday at the Parliament calling on the Canadian government to demand the immediate release of Hong Kong 47, Jimmy Lai, and others.

"The verdict for the Hong Kong 47 is one of the darkest chapters in Hong Kong's history,” said Jenny Kwan, MP Vancouver East, the petition sponsor. “It's just astonishing that pro-democracy activists are jailed and former legislators are sentenced up to 10 years for simply exercising their basic right to participate in elections under Hong Kong's Basic Law.”

“In 2020, 610,000 Hong Kong citizens participated in the democratic primary elections, clearly demonstrating their will for political reform,” said Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of Toronto Association for Democracy in China and the petition’s initiator. “Their only ‘crime’ was to exercise their rights and freedoms as prescribed by the UN Human Rights Declaration.”

“The International community must stand united to condemn this gross violation of international human rights and demand accountability from Hong Kong and China in their broken promise to the ‘One Country, Two Systems’," Jenny Kwan said.

HANSARD: Petition to release Hong Kong political prisoners and stop according special rights to HK Trade Office

Parliament VIDEO: Jenny tables a petition in solidarity with Hong Kong political prisoners and pro-democracy movement

CIMM#113: Pension Transferability and Access to Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), and Delays in Permanent Residence and Visas for Hong Kongers

Jenny Kwan Vancouver East, BC

All right. Thank you.
Hence, we have this problem. You have the Canadian government, which created this lifeboat scheme for Hong Kongers who are fleeing persecution in Hong Kong as a result of the national security law. The government, in its wisdom or lack thereof, created this lifeboat scheme that only provides for temporary residence by way of a work permit or a study permit. Then these people have to go to the queue to make an application for permanent residence, and we know that there is a huge backlog and delay in processing.

In the beginning, there was swift action, but as time has passed, it's been lengthened by way of the delay, to the point where the former minister even made an announcement to further extend people's work permits and study permits for another three years. That is to say, a person could be here for six years—as long as six years—under this current scheme without getting permanent residence. This is because the minister anticipated that people would not be able to swiftly get their permanent resident status. That is the reality.

As a result of that, people are not able to provide proof of permanent residence, because the application is in process. To make it even worse, the government—the minister—just made an announcement about the levels plan, cutting levels to the tune of 105,000 permanent resident status applications.
You can imagine how long the wait-list is for Hong Kongers as they continue to wait. Now, these Hong Kongers have zero intention of returning to Hong Kong, because they know that they would be persecuted if they did. People know that. I think the Canadian government knows that.

This is my question, then, to you as the manager of their pension, which, because of this rule, they're unable to access: Would your organization be willing to write to the regulator to ask for consideration for these applicants who are in a prolonged period of waiting for permanent resident status, to ask that their declaration indicating that they do not intend to return to Hong Kong be accepted as proof that they intend to leave Hong Kong permanently so that they can access their pensions? Is that something that your organization would consider doing?

Maryscott Greenwood, Global Head, Government Relations, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

I think I understand the question.
The basic premise of your question has to do with the period of time it takes for the Government of Canada to determine and provide permanent residency or citizenship. It seems to me that this is a function of the Government of Canada, as opposed to a regulated entity. That's how I would answer that.

Laura Hewitt, Senior Vice-President and Head, Global Government Affairs and Public Policy, Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc.

Yes. I would say that it's not within our authority to change the criteria.

However, our numbers show that once that permanent residency does come through, we're able to process the applications and approve Canadian permanent residents.

Click to read the full discussion from the Committee meeting

HANSARD: RCMP Allegation Concerning Foreign Interference

National Post NEWS: 'Not informed': Mélanie Joly tells inquiry she was kept in the dark for years on foreign interference

Earlier this week, current national security and intelligence adviser Nathalie Drouin said she had seen no evidence there are “traitors” in Parliament and that some of the conclusions in the NSICOP report made her “very uncomfortable.”

Mendicino said he believes there is a need to “clear the air” about NSICOP’s findings.

“I am very worried that the entire conversation around foreign interference and parliamentarians is being transformed into a kangaroo court with very little regard for the process of understanding how we assess intelligence,” he told the inquiry.

“I think it is extremely important that we heed the opinion and the evidence that has been given to this commission, from Ms. Drouin, from CSIS, around the fact that… this NSICOP report has gone further than where they are at in the assessment of the intelligence,” he added.

CBC NEWS: Joly says she wasn't briefed on foreign interference for over a year

Under questioning by Sujit Choudhry, lawyer for NDP MP Jenny Kwan, Mendicino agreed that officials need to clear the air on foreign interference and parliamentarians.

"I am very worried that the entire conversation around foreign interference and parliamentarians is being transformed into a kangaroo court, with very little regard for the process of understanding how we assess intelligence, especially given its rapidly evolving nature," he said.

CBC NEWS: Bill Blair's former chief of staff rejects claims of political motive behind 54-day warrant delay

 

Sujit Choudhry, lawyer for NDP MP Jenny Kwan, asked why Astravas had asked for a briefing on Vanweenan lists in connection with that warrant when she would have seen similar lists attached to previous warrant applications handled by Blair's office. 

"Did you recognize any of the names on that list?" asked Choudhry. "As you can appreciate, I can't discuss the contents of a Vanweenan list or a specific warrant in this forum and I have spoken with the commission about this," responded Astravas.

Despite Astravas being peppered with questions about the delay in arranging for Blair to be briefed and to sign the warrant, by the end of her testimony, it still wasn't clear why it took so long. Two other warrants that were applied for during that time period were signed with delays of only a few days and Blair had a number of secure conversations with the director of CSIS during that period.

Astravas revealed that Blair was aware of the foreign interference investigation that triggered the warrant before CSIS submitted the application.

CBC NEWS: The scandal that shocked Parliament in the spring is slowly fading from memory

Separately, NDP MP Jenny Kwan had asked Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus to find that the suspicions raised by NSICOP's report constituted a question of privilege for all MPs. But on Monday, Fergus reported back that he could not find a prima facie breach of privilege.

Had Fergus ruled in Kwan's favour, she could have had the matter referred to a House committee for further study. But a House committee could still choose to pursue the matter of its own volition. If they were so motivated, MPs could try to design a process for investigating the allegations contained in the NSICOP report and deciding whether further action needs to be taken (up to and including expulsion).

But there's also no guarantee the House won't be dissolved for an election in the next few weeks or months. And political attention has clearly moved on — the NSICOP report has not been the subject of a single question in question period since MPs returned to Ottawa earlier this month.

Four months ago, Parliament suffered a paroxysm of suspicion and fear — perhaps for good reasons, given the allegations levelled against unnamed parliamentarians. But now, the intrigue seems like it might just fade away without any obvious resolution.

CBC NEWS: NDP reactivates TikTok account despite foreign interference risk and security concerns

The inquiry heard earlier this month from NDP member of Parliament Jenny Kwan, herself a target of foreign interference by China. She said she doesn't know how effective the government's TikTok ban can be, since it does not extend to personal devices.

"In her opinion, by engaging with the platform, Canadian politicians are providing TikTok with relevant data points and legitimizing a 'brainwashing machine' used to push PRC [People's Republic of China] narratives on a variety of subjects," Kwan's inquiry witness statement says.

According to a top secret briefing note drafted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and made public through the inquiry, CSIS warned in December 2022 that TikTok could be exploited by the Chinese government to bolster its influence and power in Canada.

The app, which is owned by the Chinese-based company ByteDance, can gather sensitive user data, CSIS said in the briefing note.

"Despite assurances to the contrary, personal data on TikTok users is accessible to China," CSIS said.

The app collects a wide range of user information, including biometric data like facial geometry, iris scans, voice patterns and fingerprints. TikTok also gathers information from a person's phone, including GPS location, browsing history and technical specifics like the device's serial number, CSIS said.

"While ByteDance claims that all TikTok user data is stored in the United States and Singapore— not in China — ByteDance's servers are all located in China," CSIS wrote.

CSIS also said TikTok censored topics related to democratic values and failed to remove 90 per cent of disinformation ads about the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.