RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission, Tuesday, November 15, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
OTTAWA – Acting RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme confirmed Tuesday that police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Conservative MP Michael Chong was targeted by Beijing.
He said the RCMP is also working with elections officials to probe alleged foreign interference against two other members of Parliament – Conservative MP Erin O’Toole and NDP MP Jenny Kwan – but wouldn’t confirm whether police are pursuing criminal charges in either case.
“Any matters that can be charged, any person that can be charged with the Criminal Code, we will do so,” he said.
The interim commissioner made the comments on Parliament Hill this morning, where he testified in front of a parliamentary committee that is studying the issue.
Duheme said more than 100 investigations into foreign interference writ large are underway in Canada, adding that police stations allegedly operated by Beijing have been closed amid ongoing investigations.
“We are trying to build the relationship with the communities to have the people come forward and tell us their story, so we can have more evidence to lay appropriate charges ” he said.
He said the national police agency first learned about allegations against MPs in the media, and he had not seen a Canadian Security Intelligence Service memo warning about Beijing’s alleged targeting of parliamentarians.
“I’m not saying that we didn’t get it, but I don’t recall reading the memo,” he said, adding that such information would only have been shared with the RCMP if it met a criminal threshold.
Former public safety minister Bill Blair, who is now the minister of emergency preparedness, blamed CSIS earlier this month for the fact he did not receive classified information about threats to MPs.
“The director determined this was not information the minister needed to know,” Blair said.
CSIS director David Vigneault is expected to testify before the committee this afternoon.
The first report from special rapporteur David Johnston, who resigned that position last Friday citing a heavily politicized atmosphere around his work, had said that the information never made it to the political level.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s current national security adviser, Jody Thomas, said the memo was provided to her interim predecessor David Morrison in August 2021.
During his own committee appearance Tuesday morning, Morrison, who is now the deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, said the memo didn’t name specific MPs and was meant to raise awareness.
He said he saw the nine-page memo on Aug. 17, two days after the 2021 election had been called, in a reading package prepared for him by the Privy Council Office.
Morrison said he read the document and assumed the any further relevant actions had already been taken. To his understanding, the document he received was not intended to “spur any action” on his part, he said, and he did not brief the prime minister on its contents. It was “not a memorandum for action. It was a report for awareness,” he said.
Morrison said he did order a follow-up report, which was ready in January 2022, but he had left the national security adviser role by that time.
Johnston, whose report found serious issues with the way the government handles confidential information, had concluded that there were no indications the prime minister was made aware of China’s alleged efforts with respect to Chong or other MPs.
The Liberal government recently issued a directive that any threats against members of Parliament, their families or their staff must be elevated to the highest political levels, even if CSIS does not deem the threat to be serious or legitimate.
Ottawa had expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei in May, accusing him of being involved in a plot to intimidate Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong.
In response, China’s embassy expelled Canada’s consul in Shanghai and issued a statement accusing Canada of breaching international law and acting based on anti-Chinese sentiment.
Chong’s alleged targeting in 2021 had come after he successfully sponsored a motion in the House of Commons labelling Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China a genocide.
Chong told MPs during his own committee appearance that the failure to notify him of potential threats constituted a “systematic breakdown in the machinery of government.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2023.
