Recently, Robert Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Parliament that Canada is “actively considering” establishing a Canadian foreign agent registration law based on the Australian Foreign Influence Transparency Act and the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act.
In response, Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, wrote to the Ottawa Citizen that Canadians should demand that their government stop paying lip service and take immediate action.
Chinese Communist Party Agent Lobbies Canadian Government to Silence Communist Abuses
In the article, Burton says that when someone takes foreign money and serves the interests of their patrons accordingly, it seems logical to expect transparency in such practices. But many are skeptical of legislation in Canada in the near future that would create a registration law for former politicians, civil servants, academics and other opinion influencers who receive benefits from China.
He explained that Beijing uses lucrative board membership and membership in other Communist Party state associations to entice these agents into becoming unregistered lobbyists, silencing them and the government. The message is that Canadian companies will lose lucrative contracts if our federal government implements a (Anti-Communist) policy that goes beyond verbal condemnation in the face of CCP human rights abuses, espionage, access to intelligence on Canada’s vital natural resources and infrastructure, and defiance of the international diplomatic and trade order through hostage-taking and economic coercion.
As proxies, these influencers have spoken out on behalf of China in public statements in Canadian newspapers and in reports from think tanks that receive Chinese funding, Burton said. Despite stern warnings from Canadian and international security experts, they have tried to stop Canadians from expressing outrage over Communist Party actions or the authorization of huawei 5G. They urged us to accept the myth that “after the decline of the United States, China will inevitably become a global hegemon. They argue that Canada should make concessions on security, sovereignty and a commitment to the values of fairness, justice and reciprocity in national relations so that we do not become spectators to “the greatest change in global history.
Citing public opinion polls, Burton said 90 per cent of Canadians want our government to be more “proactive” in its relations with China, but the prime minister and his cabinet are clearly listening to other voices, and the Chinese Communist regime may reciprocate. He said our relationship with China should be “old-fashioned and mature” and adhere to China’s urging that we “put aside our differences and seek common ground.
Chinese Communist Group Extermination Bill Passes Congress
In a recent resolution recognizing the Communist Party’s mass extermination of Uighurs, a cross-party group of MPs voted 226-0 against the motion, but the Canadian prime minister instructed his cabinet to abstain from the vote without giving a clear reason.
Commenting on this, Burton said it sends a message to Beijing that the Trudeau government will ignore the Chinese Communist Party’s horrific genocide of China’s Uighurs, showing his contempt for Canadian parliamentary democracy but pleasing the Chinese Communist Embassy.
Chinese Communist Party manipulation of activities is a concern
Burton further suggests that the CCP’s manipulative activities go far beyond rewarding influential Canadians. Politicians, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the Intelligence Service (CSIS) have acknowledged that Chinese agents have harassed and coerced people of Chinese descent in Canada, including Canadian Uighurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Chinese students, and dissidents, for years. However, a large number of Chinese agents in Canada have not been prosecuted in court, held accountable, or expelled as “personae non gratae” for the Chinese diplomats among them.
There are also worrying signs that Canadian and Chinese researchers and spies are illegally transferring Canadian dual-use military technology and other classified data to military and security industrial parks in the Communist Party of China. In Canada, no one has been arrested and prosecuted for this, in part because Ottawa has chosen to be a pro-China voice, suggesting that we should not offend China by arresting any spies.
“Think positive” versus “do it for me”
MP Oliphant’s latest statement says the government is “actively considering” establishing a foreign agent registration law. Burton argues that the government is following a familiar pattern – to placate or distract public opinion, the Trudeau government has shelved a series of empty promises and then kicked them out of the way.
Canadians, he says, should demand that their government not leave promises on the table, but take immediate action. As Lerner and Loewe sang, “Don’t sing my song, don’t sing my rhyme, please don’t explain. Do it for me!”
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