OTTAWA — The RCMP has closed its investigation into two alleged Montreal-area secret Chinese police stations in Quebec without laying charges.
In a statement, RCMP Quebec division spokesperson Cpl. Erique Gasse confirmed that the police force had closed the two-year-long investigation “recently.” The information was first reported by the
Journal de Montréal
.
“We confirm that we have closed the foreign interference investigation into alleged illicit activities reported in connection with Chinese diaspora service centres in the Montréal area. Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment in greater detail,” Gasse said.
“At this stage, the RCMP is not recommending that charges be laid,” he added. Gasse declined to say exactly when the police force closed the investigation.
In 2023, the RCMP announced that it was investigating two Montreal-area community organizations — Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal (SFCGM) and the Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud (CSQRS) —
secretly housed a Chinese “police station”
The RCMP alleged the centres may be supporting efforts to intimidate or silence critics of China’s ruling communist regime. The investigation came after a report by human rights group Safeguard Defenders that alleged it had found 110 overseas Chinese police stations, including some in Canada.
At the time, the RCMP said the investigation was part of a larger probe aiming to “detect and perturb criminal activities supported by a foreign state that can threaten the safety of people living in Canada.”
One month later, it said it had “shut down illegal police activity in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.”
Leadership for both groups has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and filed a $4.9-million defamation lawsuit against the national police force in 2024. In April, National Post reported that the RCMP had obtained a third pause of the lawsuit as it aimed to complete its investigation by the end of the year.
“These allegations only serve to stigmatize and reinforce stereotypes and prejudices against a historically marginalized group,” SFCGM leadership said in
a January statement detailing
the impacts of the investigation on the organization.
SFCGM Executive Director Carol Cheung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The links between SFCGM and the Chinese government go back years and the organization likely received funding directly from Beijing, according to a 2023 report by the Toronto Star.
The newspaper cited Chinese media reports in 2016 that the SFCGM was designated as an Overseas Chinese Service Centre by China’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO), which became part of China’s controversial United Front Work Department in 2018. That designation generally comes with funding from the Chinese government.
In 2017, Chinese media published pictures of
Li with directors of OCAO
, which experts say was an
integral part of China’s “united front system”
that has been accused of stifling critics of the Chinese regime abroad.
The Canadian government has warned for years
that Beijing uses the United Front Work Department “to stifle criticism, infiltrate foreign political parties, diaspora communities, universities and multinational corporations.”
On Friday, Gasse said “
the RCMP will continue its efforts to combat foreign interference and any form of intimidation, harassment, threats or harmful targeting of diaspora communities or individuals in Canada.”
National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com
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