Iâm mystified by the extensive deference and respect for the spies and security agencies responsible for the leaks in the China election interference inferno.
Doesnât anyone know the record of âtrained security professionals?â They missed the crack-up of the Soviet empire, 9/11 and Saddam Husseinâs nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
They got Cuba, Vietnam and Afghanistan wrong. In their British heyday they missed many double agents, then the traitors themselves regretted defecting. Up here they facilitated Maher Ararâs utterly unjustified abduction and torture. They didnât do so well on the Ottawa convoy either.
It isnât equivalent to surgery or plumbing, itâs more like consulting. Anyone can do it and no one knows what it really is. If Canadian spies were any good, theyâd have anticipated Meng Wanzhouâs arrest and found a way to prevent her flying into Vancouver, so avoiding the Two Michaels. That wouldâve been useful.
On the issue of a public inquiry, Iâm agnostic. Why agnostic? Because everyone agrees everyone tries to influence everyone elseâs elections. Canada did it in Venezuela and, appallingly, in Honduras. The U.S. does it everywhere, especially Ukraine. China does it here.
So the point isnât to find out if they do it. They did. Itâs to catch them if you can and punish them if itâs illegal. That would suggest itâs a policing issue, not an inquiry. Put the right cops onto it and stamp it out, wasting no time.
On the other hand, if Justin Trudeau is possibly a Chinese double agent intent on creating a âcommunist dictatorshipâ here, as Pierre Poilievre came close to saying in the House this week, thatâd definitely be stuff for an inquiry.
Thereâs much murk here.
Itâs not always clear when the reporters at the Globe and Mail or Global TV, who were shown but couldnât keep the leaked items, paraphrase what they saw or suddenly quote from the documents. Or even the precise nature of the documents that the reporters did see.
The Globe and Mail reporters say China âuses Canadian organizations to advocate on their behalf,â though that would be normal for Ukraine or Israel. Then they write, âwhile obfuscating linksâ to China. But whoâs being quoted here?
Elsewhere, CSIS seems to be paraphrasing Vancouverâs Chinese consul when it mentions âChinaâs efforts to influenceâ voters. But itâs unclear if CSIS then directly quotes the consul saying those efforts worked âwhile still adhering to the local political customs.â And even that wouldnât necessarily imply law-breaking.
By contrast, claims about illicit campaign funding seem straightforward and should lead to charges.
What I found most distressing personally are reports, in the Star, about Chinese officials intimidating people here â such as Uyghurs, who work on human rights issues in China â via threats to their families back there. That seems to jibe with whatâs known about Chinaâs genocidal policies in Xianjing. I donât know if itâs illegal. I hope so. Still, it has nothing to do with Canadian elections.
This leaves a question about why Chinaâs actions provoke such an intense response compared to othersâ.
This week Liberal MP John McKay called China âan existential threat to Canadaâ out to âturn us all into vassal states.â McKay reflects an era when there was a stronger right wing in the Liberal party. He belongs to a global group called the âInter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.â Needless to say (whataboutism alert) there is no Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on the U.S., though it has about 800 foreign military bases while China has one.
The Yellow Peril was a common term used in the 19th century by leaders like Germanyâs Kaiser and reputable academics. It survives in Trumpâs use of Kung Flu and other detritus. As someone said, the balloon didnât help.
These currents then play into the quite separate, genuine distress Canadians felt over the Michaels, which wouldnât even have happened but for the ineptitude of the government and our âprofessionalâ security geniuses.
These are devious waters weâre attempting to negotiate. No oneâs good will should be taken for granted.
This column originally appeared in the Toronto Star.