Hill Times NEWS: Feds have ‘duty to protect and warn’ parliamentarians from threats ‘in any form,’ says NDP MP Jenny Kwan

NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.) testified at the inquiry on Sept. 18, alongside Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington–Halton Hills, Ont.) and former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. She told The Hill Times that regardless of party or position in Parliament, “the truth of the matter is we’re all exposed.”

Kwan said that all of her fellow witnesses that day also exemplified that threats to parliamentarians, their staff, and their families “could come in any way, in any form, and on any platform.”

Kwan said those threats could take the form of the malware attacks targeting members of IPAC, or more personal threats, including those aimed at Kwan or Chong and their families.

Last year, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) informed Chong that he and his family were targets of the Chinese government over his 2021 motion condemning Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims as a genocide. That information was only shared with Chong in May 2023 after the federal government confirmed reporting by The Globe and Mail about a leaked CSIS report detailing Beijing’s efforts to intimidate him and his family.

The following August, Global Affairs said it believed Chong had also been the target of a foreign disinformation campaign, which it suspected was directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The heavily redacted report published on June 3 concluded that some elected officials—including a former MP connected with a foreign intelligence officer—are “semi-witting or witting” actors in foreign interference.

On June 10, the Bloc Québécois introduced a successful motion requesting that the terms of reference for the Hogue inquiry be further expanded to include the allegations raised in the NSICOP report.

The commission said it would work to “shed light on the facts” discussed in the NSICOP report. Still, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue has since said the inquiry would be unable to disclose the identities of the implicated parliamentarians.

However, Kwan said she firmly believes that more follow-up and accountability are needed to disperse the “cloud of suspicion” the report has cast over every parliamentarian.

“This undermines not just me as an MP, but the entire institution, and I think those who want to sow chaos and disrupt our democratic institutions want that,” Kwan said. “This cannot be allowed to continue.”

While her privilege question called for PROC to study the report, Kwan also said conducting that study in tandem with a parallel Senate committee would be beneficial.

“I believe that is a path forward to address this cloud of suspicion,” Kwan said. “I think in that process we can balance transparency, accountability, and due process.” On Sept. 23, House Speaker Greg Fergus (Hull-Aylmer, Que.) ruled that he did not find that Kwan’s intervention met the threshold of a violation of privilege.

On Sept. 23, House Speaker Greg Fergus (Hull-Aylmer, Que.) ruled that he did not find that Kwan’s intervention met the threshold of a violation of privilege.

Click this link to read the full news story:

https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/09/25/feds-have-duty-to-protect-and-warn-parliamentarians-from-threats-in-any-form-says-ndp-mp-jenny-kwan/435294/

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Globe & Mail: PMO won’t say if Carney spoke with Modi about India’s alleged role in killing of Canadian Sikh leader

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says Ottawa continues to have “difficult conversations” with New Delhi about the 2023 killing of a Canadian Sikh leader, but the Prime Minister’s Office has declined to say if the matter was raised earlier this week in talks between Mark Carney and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.

Mr. Carney ducked a question Tuesday about whether he and Mr. Modi had discussed the killing of the Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, during a one-on-one meeting that day at the G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Alta.

The Globe and Mail pressed the PMO on Wednesday about whether Mr. Nijjar’s slaying and Indian foreign interference were part of the discussions. Sikh organizations and human-rights activists have also sought clarification on what was discussed.

Mr. Carney’s press secretary, Audrey Champoux, would not comment on Wednesday. She referred The Globe to a statement the two leaders released Tuesday: “Prime Minister Carney raised priorities on the G7 agenda, including transnational crime and repression, security, and the rules-based order.”

After the meeting, the two leaders announced that they would designate new high commissioners and restore regular diplomatic services to citizens in both countries.

Bilateral relations went into a deep freeze in 2024, after then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP said there was evidence linking agents of the Modi government to Mr. Nijjar’s slaying.

Canada expelled the Indian high commissioner and five other diplomats over the killing. India denied any role and responded with similar diplomatic expulsions.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, an outspoken human-rights activist, said in a June 17 letter to Mr. Carney that re-establishing diplomatic normalcy with India when it has yet to account for its role in the death of Mr. Nijjar “sends a deeply painful message to Sikh Canadians who continue to live under threat.”

Major Sikh organizations and human-rights advocates also wrote a separate letter to Mr. Carney on Tuesday, saying the Nijjar killing was part of a co-ordinated campaign of transnational repression that “continues to violate Canadian sovereignty.”

Global Editorial: Another sneak attack on your privacy rights

Like another government before them, the Liberals are trying to satiate law enforcement’s perennial desire for warrantless access to personal information in the digital age by linking it to a perceived emergency.

The Conservatives under Stephen Harper did it in 2013, when Vic Toews, the public safety minister, famously said of a Liberal opposition critic that, “He can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.”

Mr. Toews was talking about the 2012 Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, which would have given police unprecedented powers to monitor Canadians’ internet activities without a warrant.

The bill did not in fact mention children or internet predators anywhere except in its title, and the Conservatives abandoned it in 2013 under a withering public outcry.

The Carney Liberals are now throwing around the words “fentanyl,” “sex offenders” and “money laundering” in Bill C-2, and suggesting Canada’s borders are porous, for the same purpose.

Michael Geist: “Big Brother Tactics”: Why Bill C-2’s New Warrantless Disclosure Demand Powers Extend Far Beyond Internet and Telecom Providers

The government’s inclusion of warrantless information demand powers in Bill C-2 may make this the most dangerous lawful access proposal yet, exceeding even the 2010 bill led by Conservative Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. The initial concern regarding the bill’s warrantless disclosure demand unsurprisingly focused on whether the proposal was consistent with Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence upholding the reasonable expectation of privacy in basic subscriber information (there is a strong argument it is not). The application of this new power was generally framed as a matter for telecom and Internet companies, given that companies such as Bell, Rogers, and Telus are typically the focal point for law enforcement seeking information on subscriber activity. However, it has become increasingly apparent that this is an overly restrictive reading of the provision. The Bill C-2 information demand power doesn’t just target telecom providers. It targets everyone who provides services with the prospect of near limitless targets for warrantless disclosure demands.