RCMP says it is taking a ‘holistic approach’ to foreign interference

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OTTAWA — The RCMP will not share how many investigations into foreign interference are currently underway, nor if the federal police force is still looking into allegations targeting elected officials, despite having shared an estimate months ago.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme had told a parliamentary committee last June that there were more than 100 investigations open in Canada into foreign interference. But he fell short from providing an update at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Ottawa on Thursday.

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Conservative MP Michael Chong said his case was closed by the RCMP in December.

Chong had received a spoof email purporting to be from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs ahead of the 2019 election warning him he was barred from entering Chinese territory, but the federal police deemed that it was not a criminal offence.

The RCMP would not say whether other MPs had their cases closed, citing the need to “strike a balance between transparency and the privacy interest of individuals who are the targets and victims of these types of investigations as well as the public interest.”

Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn, however, said that the conclusion of an investigation into a specific incident does not mean that the RCMP’s work is done.

“The RCMP is taking a broader view of foreign actor interference in the full definition of foreign interference,” he told reporters. “The broad understanding of the problem and our efforts to combat the broad public safety threat that this represents is ongoing.”

Duheme added that a case could always be reopened if there is new information.  

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The RCMP said it did not open any criminal investigations related to foreign interference during the 2019 and 2021 elections, but only after. They are not only related to the electoral process but can relate to intellectual property theft or transnational repression.

Flynn’s witness testimony revealed that the federal police has been taking a more “holistic approach” to foreign interference, which may not lead directly to prosecution but considers how those activities can interplay with other illegal activities such as money laundering.

Earlier in the day, current and former top officials from Global Affairs Canada explained the difference between foreign influence and interference.

“Canada has diplomats all over the world. We pay them to develop relationships, to build networks, to get to know everyone they can in the country to which they’re posted… so that they can have influence,” said David Morrison, the deputy minister of foreign affairs.

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“We do things behind closed doors, but we don’t do things covertly. We don’t do things clandestinely, and we don’t threaten people. We don’t say, ‘If you don’t vote for this Canadian trade agreement, the following will happen to your family,’” he said.

Marta Morgan, who was deputy minister from 2019 to 2022, said in her witness testimony that “foreign influence becomes foreign interference when the activity is conducted against the interests of Canada in a covert, non-transparent and malign manner.”

She said that China was “not very effective at online interference” in the past but “significantly increased its capabilities between 2019 and 2021.”

Morgan explained that the bilateral relationship between China and Canada was tense during that period, citing the detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in China and the sanctions from Beijing in light of Parliament adopting a resolution calling the deaths of Uyghurs in China a genocide.

Top officials from CSIS, Canada’s spy agency, are set to testify later Thursday.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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