China's foreign interference goes beyond elections, intelligence expert says

During a public inquiry on foreign interference held Monday, it was revealed that China's foreign influence goes beyond elections and impacts various key aspects of Canadian society.

Martin Green, a former senior foreign intelligence assessment expert with the Privy Council, stated that a special report prepared for the Privy Council's Intelligence Assessment Secretariat in January 2022 found that China's interference efforts extend beyond simple attempts to sway Canada.

"You can't look at foreign interference just solely through the lens of the electoral system," Green explained to the inquiry. "I think it's much bigger than that. You're seeing ... kind of hybrid tools being brought to bear."

He noted that China employs a sophisticated toolkit that includes foreign defense, national security and intelligence operations, economic coercion, military pressure, and espionage. "So there's a suite of tools that are brought to bear that we're seeing much more often," he added.

Green mentioned that he consulted with David Morrison, former national security adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, about the special report. He later forwarded the report to Morrison's successor, Jody Thomas, and discussed the issue with her in several meetings.

He expressed uncertainty as to why Thomas did not share the report with Trudeau. The report was completed just before Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and coincided with truckers staging a convoy protest in Ottawa against government pandemic measures, which paralyzed the nation's capital for three weeks.

The inquiry also announced that it has received unprecedented access to cabinet documents following negotiations with the government.

"The extraordinary degree of access by the commission to both classified information and information subject to cabinet confidence is unprecedented and reflects the importance of the inquiry's work," Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue stated.

She added, "The government's willingness to disclose this information to the commission will assist me in developing recommendations that will help to preserve the integrity of Canada's electoral processes and democratic institutions and enhance Canadians' trust and confidence in their democracy."

The foreign interference inquiry was initiated after media reports claimed that China interfered in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

In her initial report released in May, Hogue concluded that while it was possible that foreign interference occurred in a limited number of ridings, it did not impact the overall election results.