Privy Council Office was aware of threats to MP and family, Chong says, despite Trudeau’s claim

Article content

OTTAWA – Conservative MP Michael Chong, whose family was targeted by the Chinese government according to a CSIS assessment, said staff in the Privy Council Office were made aware of the spy agency’s view two years ago, contrary to the prime minister’s claim that CSIS had kept that knowledge to itself.

Article content

On Thursday, Chong said that he had just been informed by Trudeau’s current national security adviser, Jody Thomas, that the CSIS assessment from July 20, 2021, was in fact sent to the national security adviser in the Privy Council Office (PCO), the prime minister’s government department, and all other relevant departments at the time. It allegedly contains information that Chong and a number of other MPs were targeted by China.

“This contradicts what the prime minister said yesterday,” said Chong. “Will the prime minister correct the record?”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that the information related to threats against Chong and his family was not “briefed out” of CSIS and that the spy agency “made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed to be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern.”

Article content

Article content

Trudeau has since directed CSIS to let him know of all threats against MPs, regardless of how the spy agency judges the intelligence.

The apparent contradiction was brought to light just days after the Globe and Mail revealed that CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, had prepared a top-secret assessment in 2021 that Chong and his family had been targeted by Beijing for his positions on the Uyghur minority in China.

The report also mentioned that Wei Zhao, a Chinese diplomat, had been involved in this case.

On Thursday, calls to expel Wei from the country came from all sides on the opposition benches.

Article content

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told a parliamentary committee on Thursday morning that she instructed her deputy minister, David Morrison, to summon the Chinese ambassador, Cong Peiwu, to Canada and convey to him that Canada was considering all options including expelling diplomats such as Wei for the threats against Chong.

Joly said that the government is currently “assessing the consequences” in case of diplomatic expulsion of a Chinese diplomat and stressed that “there will be consequences” from China.

“I think it’s important that Canadians know what we’ve learned from the two Michaels experiences is that, of course, China and the PRC (People’s Republic of China) will take action. These interests, including economic interests, consular interests, and also diplomatic interests, will be affected,” she said.

Article content

Joly said that what happened to Chong is “completely unacceptable” and that she takes the situation “extremely seriously.”

“You have all heard me say — and I’ve said it directly to my Chinese counterpart — that we will not tolerate any form of foreign interference, not in our democracy, not in our internal affairs, full stop,” she said. “I have made my expectations clear. All foreign agents in Canada must abide by the Vienna Convention. If they do not, there will be consequences.”

Chong said that the government can declare a diplomat persona non grata in Canada as per the Vienna Convention, and urged Joly to apply those sanctions to Wei.

“If we do not take that course of action, Minister, we are basically putting up a giant billboard for all authoritarian states around the world that says we are open for foreign interference threat activities on Canadian soil targeting Canadian citizens, and you can conduct these activities with zero consequences,” he said.

Article content

“That’s why this individual needs to be sent packing.”

NDP MP Heather McPherson sided with her Conservative colleague and said that the fact that the Chinese diplomat who targeted Chong and his family is still in Canada is “appalling.”

“To hear you say things like that you’re assessing it, it makes me very, very concerned that you’re not taking this as seriously as you should,” McPherson told Joly.

Morrison, at the time of the CSIS report, was the acting national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister. He was supposed to appear at Thursday’s committee alongside Joly, but the witness list was amended early in the morning to reflect that he would not be present.

Chong voiced his “displeasure” with Morrison’s “last-minute cancellation.” He said that the deputy minister’s testimony would have been “particularly relevant” in finding out if the prime minister was not advised of the threats against him and his own family nearly two years ago.

Trudeau and his ministers, including Joly, said they learned about the threats against Chong and his family in the media at the start of the week.

Chong also took issue with the Liberal MPs hinting during a debate in the House of Commons on Thursday that he was made aware of those threats against him and his family in 2021. Chong said he did receive a briefing from the spy agency at the time, but it was general in nature and did not at all address the issue of threats against his family.