December 26, 2024

FIRST READING: How China allegedly spent the last 10 years trying to influence Trudeau

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect a Chinese honour guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 31, 2016. © Provided by National Post Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect a Chinese honour guard during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 31, 2016.

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TOP STORY

Amid ever-louder revelations that the Trudeau government ignored CSIS warnings that China was brazenly toying with the 2021 election, a Wednesday report in The Globe and Mail cited a CSIS official who said that the People’s Republic of China has been openly pursuing an influence operation against Justin Trudeau since well before he became prime minister.

Below, a cynic’s guide to how Beijing may well have put this plan into action.

China was throwing money at the Trudeau Foundation

Probably the most damning allegation in the CSIS leak is that one of China’s Canadian consulates told Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin to donate $1 million to Trudeau-related causes — after which he would be reimbursed for the amount.

So, $200,000 went to the Trudeau Foundation, $50,000 went to fund a statue of Pierre Trudeau, and the rest went to Pierre Trudeau-named initiatives at the University of Montreal.

It’s been known since 2016 that a Beijing-affiliated billionaire was throwing money at things with the word “Trudeau” in them — but it’s only this week that charges first emerged that he was explicitly doing it on orders from the Chinese Communist Party.

Notably, the donation occurred soon after Trudeau spent the evening with Zhang Bin at an exclusive $1,500-a-plate fundraiser organized by the Chinese Business Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, somebody was showering the Trudeau Foundation in foreign cash. Right up until Trudeau became Liberal leader in 2013, the organization didn’t receive a cent in foreign donations. Then, all of a sudden, in 2015 the Trudeau Foundation was hit by a $438,000 surge in foreign donations, followed by $535,000 in 2016.

Oh, and the head of the Trudeau Foundation during this period — Morris Rosenberg — now has a new job drafting reports for the Trudeau government about Chinese election interference.

An obscure Pierre Trudeau book was released by Chinese state publishers

Even among die-hard Canadian political nerds it’s hard to find someone who’s read Two Innocents in Red China, a 1960s memoir co-authored by a then-obscure Pierre Trudeau.  So it’s perhaps a little weird that a state-owned Chinese publishing firm struck a deal with the Trudeau family in 2005 to translate the book and release it in the People’s Republic of China — they even got Justin’s brother Sacha to write a preface.

It’s not known how well the book did among Chinese readers, but in 2021 former Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques told the National Post that the whole enterprise looked very much like a naked attempt to curry favour with a Canadian political family (even though Justin’s first stab at politics was still three years away).

“The approach is always the same: you make people feel special, you tell them they understand China and you pretend to give them special access,” said Saint-Jacques.

Eleven years later, it happened again when a state-owned publisher released a Chinese-language version of Trudeau’s memoir Common Ground. Of course, they gave it a slightly more flattering title, The Legend Continues.

Trudeau was utterly feted by Beijing during a 2016 visit

Trudeau’s family has always had a weird relationship with the People’s Republic of China. As prime minister, Pierre Trudeau paid semi-regular visits to the country and often hauled his children along.

When Sacha later wrote a fawning book about China in 2016, he named it Barbarian Lost, a reference to Pierre’s 1970s-era advice that China rightly used to see Westerners as barbarians (he was saying it to shame Sacha and Justin for roughhousing at a Chinese cultural site). “It’s a place that’s unique. It’s separate,” the younger Trudeau brother told CBC in 2016.

So in 2016, it didn’t take all that much for the People’s Republic of China to utterly flatter Justin Trudeau during his first official visit to the country. China’s premier Li Keqiang made sure to offer praise of Trudeau’s father within seconds of their initial meeting, and the Washington Post noted that “Trudeau’s China trip has received mostly favourable coverage in the party-controlled press.” Said media even made sure to give the prime minister kudos for wearing a red tie.

Trudeau, meanwhile, framed the whole thing as a kind of family reunion — and made sure to note that he had brought his own kids along. “The friendship and the openness towards China that my father taught me, I’m certainly hoping to pass on not only to my children but to generations of Canadians in the future,” he said.

IN OTHER NEWS

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is obviously spending a lot of his time these days countering allegations that his government tolerated known foreign interference. Here’s a quick summary of his main counterpoints:

  • “It is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can and cannot run.” Trudeau said this Monday in response to a Globe and Mail report saying that CSIS had recommended in 2021 that the Liberals drop Han Dong as a candidate due to his allegedly close ties to Beijing. The bulk of foreign interference allegations in recent days have indeed come by way of unnamed CSIS sources, so some Liberals are framing this whole thing as a hit job by disgruntled intelligence agents.
  • “We are very concerned with the leaks, particularly because there are so many inaccuracies in those leaks.” This was Trudeau’s immediate response to the election interference reports, although he didn’t specify what was inaccurate. If it sounds a little familiar, this was also how he responded to initial reports in 2019 that he had tried to intervene in a prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. “The allegations in The Globe story are false,” Trudeau said once the revelations appeared in the Globe and Mail. Although, as later probes would show, they weren’t.
  • This whole thing is racist. We all knew this one was coming. On Monday, Trudeau implied that all of this may simply be a bit of a moral panic surrounding Chinese-Canadian legislators. “One of the things we’ve seen, unfortunately, over the past years is a rise in anti-Asian racism linked to the pandemic and concerns being raised or arisen around people’s loyalties,” he said.
  • Newcomers won’t have to do this anymore if the Department of Citizenship and Immigration gets their way. As detailed by the National Post’s Bryan Passifiume, the department is looking at ditching the in-person oath of allegiance required to become a citizen of Canada. Instead, the oath would simply be a box that could be checked on a website, similar to software terms of service. © Ian Kucerak/Postmedia Newcomers won’t have to do this anymore if the Department of Citizenship and Immigration gets their way. As detailed by the National Post’s Bryan Passifiume, the department is looking at ditching the in-person oath of allegiance required to become a citizen of Canada. Instead, the oath would simply be a box that could be checked on a website, similar to software terms of service.

    NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has called for a “fully independent and non-partisan public inquiry” into the allegations of Chinese election interference. The idea has already been dismissed by Trudeau, but this is one of those things that Singh could technically push for anyway given that he holds the balance of power in a minority government. However, as per usual, Singh made no mention of invoking such powers, but did say he “shares people’s disappointment” about the whole thing.

    We will soon be entering Month 7 of an Ontario school board finding itself utterly powerless to do anything about a shop teacher wearing enormous prosthetic breasts to class. After widespread protests, pressure from the Ontario government, at least one lawsuit and pushback from parents, the Halton District School Board did finally draft a list of “professionalism standards” that would apply to its teachers. There’s just one problem: It doesn’t actually mention dress. © Submitted We will soon be entering Month 7 of an Ontario school board finding itself utterly powerless to do anything about a shop teacher wearing enormous prosthetic breasts to class. After widespread protests, pressure from the Ontario government, at least one lawsuit and pushback from parents, the Halton District School Board did finally draft a list of “professionalism standards” that would apply to its teachers. There’s just one problem: It doesn’t actually mention dress.

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