LIVE UPDATES: Inquiry investigates foreign interference in Canada's elections
The inquiry into interference in Canada's elections is beginning two weeks of public hearings on Wednesday, examining alleged attempts by countries like Russia, China and India to sway results.
Quebec judge Marie-Josée Hogue is serving as commissioner of the hearings. Hogue described how the commission “must walk a very fine line in its work” regarding the classified nature of evidence and on-going criminal investigations.
The commission will examine attempts by foreign actors to meddle in Canada's 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Follow along with Sheila Gunn Reid's live coverage on X, or on the page below:
This morning, the Foreign Interference Commission resumes. I will post all day, and the Rebel News team will post clips from the day's coverage.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
According to the published agenda, the Commission will hear from diaspora community members who are subject to foreign bullying.
Rumours were that Trudeau and senior MPs would testify today at the Foreign Interference Commission. However, the agenda does not indicate that.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Han Dong, former Lib MP credibly accused of benefiting from Chinese meddling, will testify.
(He is on an official govt mission to…
The commission is going through the minutiae of definitions used in the commission. I'll spare you guys that.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
And now the Foreign Interference Commission is on a break. Stay tuned
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Foreign Interference Commission is back. The lawyer for the commission will present a report on the various government entities involved in foreign interference investigations and the prevention of foreign meddling. It's titled Government 101. This is basic roles and…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
(Conspiracy Theory: they make much of these official commissions tedious for exceptionally long stretches so that we get bored and tune out. I'm on to their little schemes. I will not fall victim to their plans to stupefy me into submission. Not today, bureaucrats. Not today)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
And just like that the Foreign Interference Commission is on break until 1:00 p.m. Eastern, 11 Mountain.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
After the break, The commission expects to hear from diaspora communities victimized by foreign interference.
The Foreign Interference Commission is reconvening. Now up: a panel of diaspora members who can speak to the pressure foreign agents put on their communities,
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Representing Russians, Sikhs, Uighurs, Iranians, the Falun Gong, and Chinese.
First speaker: A rep from the Iranian diaspora details how the Iranian regime intimidates freedom activists in Canada.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
He details how Canada is used as a launching point for Iran to attack our allies, including a kidnapping plot in the United States. https://t.co/YcThtbYaxy
The speaker details how he is subject to intimidation by Iranian operatives here in Canada.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
He was subject to slashed tires here. His parents in Iran are banned from leaving the country.
He notes that former Iranian officials are often free to visit Canada or seek permanent…
The speaker recounts the story about the founder of the morality police in Tehran - the former chief of police for the city- just working out in Richmond Hill. The Iranian official was in charge during the torture-murder of a Canadian. https://t.co/C4J3DRK6t9
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
The speaker details how a member of the Iranian diaspora was subject to a smear campaign when he sought to run for Parliament. The speaker then vaguely mentions Liberal MP Jowarhi, although not by name, as being accused of engaging in sympathetic meetings with Iranian officials
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Speaker details how the Iranian regime uses sporting events in Canada as a propaganda and intimidation tools - calls it sportswashing. https://t.co/h2MIxmqNVO
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
The speaker says Iranian diaspora members have to hide their identities at anti-regime rallies in Canada - wear masks, glasses, and hats. Subject to electronic device confiscations upon arrival to Iran to visit their families. Says he fears lawsuits and retaliation from the…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Speaker complains that Iranian operatives are only subject to deportation, rather than criminal charges,
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Now that I can finally see the spelling, I should note that the speaker repping the Iranian community was Dr Hamed Esmaeilion - previously the president and former spokesman of The Association of Victims' Families of Flight PS752.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Speaking now: Yuriy Novodvorskiy of the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance. Says Russians use social media to foment distrust in government, journalism and science - with a "focus on divisive issues" creating the optics of "believability." https://t.co/dqCsfZP7dq
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Novodvorskiy says that Russian operatives fomenting distrust and chaos in democratic states can make the democratic states seem less desirable to Russians. Makes Russia and Russian corruption seem more stable.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Novodvorskiy says that freedom activists and their families are subject to denial of consular services from Russia. Deportation then becomes a real threat.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Political activism (abroad) or even social media posts (abroad) can be criminalized upon return to Russia.
(Online Harms…
Novodvorskiy says that years of Russian regime propaganda can make people feel alone, like they are the only people that feel a certain way about the regime, and that resistance is pointless.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
(maybe they need a Freedom Convoy to help the scales fall from people's eyes? It…
next up: Mehmet Tohti of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project https://t.co/7OAUcGyUuv
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says that the Chinese government has confiscated the passports and travel documents of all Uyghurs. So, their tiny (but accomplished) Canadian community cannot grow via asylum claimants escaping CCP slavery.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says he was phoned by Chinese officials on his way to the World Uyghur Congress in Germany. The phone call came from his hometown in China, intimidating him and making threats. That was 17 years ago. https://t.co/VOqaEv0Fcm
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says he cannot travel to certain countries because of Chinese pressure on those countries, including many Middle Eastern places and Turkey (despite Tohti being Muslim). He says he has travel bans in Central Asia.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says Uyghurs are subject to transnational impression. So, if they can flee, China pressures the host country to arrest and deport the Uyghurs back to China. Says Egypt deported 37 Uyghurs who were visiting upon China's request. Says his people are just afraid to travel.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says a Uyghur doctor in Edmonton on his death bed was blocked from communicating with his daughter. China prevented the daughter from coming to Canada, says Canadian officials did little to help. He died without seeing her.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says that before his testimony at a parliamentary hearing, he received intimidating phone calls.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Last January, he received a phone call from the Chinese police, with his family member there, just before the House of Commons vote to resettle 10k Uyghurs.…
Tohti says he was alerted by an official from Global Affairs that he was being followed - in Montreal. not China.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti is now talking of the Chinese police stations operating in Canada. Says they are used for intimidation and surveillance.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Says Chinese officials will use that info to abduct family members in China and force ex-pats in Canada to do things against their will.
Tohti talks about the complete isolation Uyghurs in Canada face from their family members back home. Since 2017, the CCP has been arresting Uyghurs and putting them in internment camps if they are accused of communicating abroad.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
"they live in total darkness"
Tohti talks about the damage to his culture thanks to the CCP. Their shrines and cemeteries were destroyed. Now, their isolation cuts them off from their ancestors, but they are recovering their language, names, books, and customs through networking here in Canada.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti says he reported his intimidation by the CCP to authorities, yet he never hears much back.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
He said when he sued the CBSA for a failure to block Uyghur slave labour products, his phone was hacked. He reported it. Nothing was done.
Foreign Interference Commission is on a break for 20 (?) mins. BRB
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Commission is back: Tohti says one of the reasons the CCP went after the Conservative Party in the last election was that the party adopted four resolutions in their election platform supporting Chinese freedom/Uyghur rights.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti talks about facial recognition software developed by Huawei which targets Uyghurs specifically.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti details of meeting with "an important MP" about the failure of the Liberal party to support human rights in China. He told the MP it sends the wrong message to all parties and it was exactly what China wanted.n
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Tohti talks about how the Canada pension plan investment board invested in companies that were involved in developing facial recognition software targeting Uyghurs, and Uyghur forced labour.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
The Conservative Party adopted a ban on this as part of their election platform,…
Tohti says Erin O'Toole was stronger on the Uyghur genocide than Poilievre is.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
(I'm not sure what he's insinuating here. I think he thinks that China was implicit in the removal of O'Toole. I'm sure the truckers would have something to say about that)
Next up: Grace Dai Wollensak, a resentative of the Falun Gong, persecuted religious minority inside of China.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Wollensak talks about the persecution of the Falun Gong in China: organ harvesting, mass killings and disappearances, incarcerations to mental facilities, forced medication, surveillance and harassment.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Wollensak says China targets Falun Gong because it is completely independent of the CCP, peaceful and thus incompatible with the Chinese government, and more popular than the CCP
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Wollensak says the Canadian Falun Gong community is subject to harassment and intimidation on Canadian soil for their human rights advocacy; CCP agents and The United Front are part of coercion, surveillance and manipulation campaigns targeting Falun Gong, even in public spaces.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
6-10 Office is a body that persecutes dissent groups in China. It's been called China's plain clothes Gestapo. Wollensak says the 6-10 Office distributes anti-Falun Gong leaflets and propaganda in Canada.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
A Falun Gong practitioner was held at gun point at a protest at the Chinese Consulate in BC.https://t.co/Et5p0EbCvH
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Wollensak says that Chinese family members of Falun Gong practitioners are harassed and intimidated.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Practitioners are denied passports/visas, subject to arbitrary arrests if they visit China, and experience cyber-attacks against Falun Gong websites and personal devices.
Wollensak gets emotional when she details how a bylaw restricted her protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa. She says the city permit office told her there was a complaint. Her voice trembles as she says China restricted her freedom of expression in Canada. (She fought…
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Wollensak notes what she calls the corruption of the Vancouver mayor who, after a trip to China where he was "treated like an emperor", restricted Falun Gong protests in front of the consulate there.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
https://t.co/IgTsasXJup
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
More Falun Gong harassment in Ottawa.
Wollensak details how the CCP romances Canadian mayors with fancy trips to China in exchange for limiting Falun Gong protests or public recognition of Falun Dafa Day.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
next up at the Foreign Interference Commission: Jaskaran Sandhu who previously served as Executive Director for the World Sikh Organization of Canada and as a Senior Advisor to Brampton’s Office of the Mayor.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Sandhu says his community, which includes MPs and mayors from all sides of the spectrum, shares diverse political views, but they are united in their advocacy of Punjab and human rights.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
(Sikh community's three largest centres: Brampton, Surrey and then Calgary)
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Sandhu says Indian consulates are made up of Indian security officials.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Says Sikh activists in Canada are frequently barred from visiting India, which prohibits access to Sikh religious and heritage sites.
Sandhu says that India is a hub for global disinformation, and it may be spread through advances in AI and social media.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
The disinformation, he says, maligns and lies about Sikhs, which he says creates "communal tensions" and "discord" here in Canada
Sandhu says that he was surprised that Trudeau in Parliament confronted the alleged assignation of a Sikh leader "head-on"https://t.co/scBB3HoXXv
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Winnie Ng, of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, born and raised in Hong Kong and came to Canada as a student, is speaking now to the Foreign Interference Commission. https://t.co/w5r8i7wX9A
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
NG says the intimidation of the CCP comes by way of the United Front and is meant to silence the critic, usurp legitimate Chinese Canadian organizations, and force the loyalty of the victim to the state.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Ng talks about how the Chinese state usurped her work to get an apology and redress for the Chinese head tax. CCP organizations undermined her work and then tried to take credit for it.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
NG says the Beijing-controlled Hong Kong government has prohibited and criminalized activities of freedom activists in Canada. They face arrest upon return to China to visit families. She calls it forced self-censorship.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Ng says newspapers in Canada have refused to put ads in the paper for her organization. https://t.co/w5r8i7wX9A
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
(Ng was an NDP candidate in the 1990s, if I recall correctly.
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
Yes, I do recall correctly. https://t.co/nIRhiv1NnU)
commission is in recess til 5 eastern
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
commission is in recess until tomorrow at 930 eastern
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) March 27, 2024
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