Excellent analysis. I would agree that this whole topic appears to become more into focus. Last year with Fife and Cooper torqued leaks we saw little incomplete vignettes that had been carefully selected to make the current government look bad. Now we are getting a more complete and balanced insight of what is really going on.
It is probably not a surprise that with the current lack of rules around nominations there is ample opportunity for foreign entities to assist a particular candidate with or without the candidate’s knowledge or participation. I don’t know if we are seeing this right now with the CPC nominations throughout the country, I get more the impression that this is Poilievre/Byrne, and perhaps Harper, shaping the roster of candidates to their liking (not too many independent thinkers, please).
It is a different story with leadership races. There is so much smoke around Poilievre leadership race that there must be multiple fires. First there is Mike Roman of the IDU and MAGA doing stuff in Ottawa during the convoy (why would an American be interested in a protest in Canada?), which led to O’Toole’s departure as leader. Then there is the involvement of India in the membership sign-ups. Followed by the disqualification of Patrick Brown with the Poilievre campaign paying the legal bills of the accuser. The whole thing smells.
I have no doubt that Poilievre is neck deep in foreign interference when it comes to his own leadership campaign. It is also the only plausible explanation why he does not want to get a classified briefing. I don’t know if this is all going to come out before the next election, but if it does, it would certainly be poetic justice in my opinion.
So, what is left? A bunch of MPs and Senators that have been too close with foreign entities. Documented by a spy agency that has trouble providing clear guidance on what is a hard fact and what is merely a rumour. Not terribly helpful and certainly not something for the PM to get excited about.
Finally, talking about this spy agency, it has been one year since the unauthorized leaks and the leaker or leakers have still not been caught. Is our spy agency really that incompetent it cannot find the culprits? Or is there another reason?
"in general, the message was much ado about nothing."
I don't know what you listened to, but I listened to the entire hour of May's presser and that was not the conclusion I came to. What she stated was "there is no list of MPs" - this alleged list that has been the constant topic in the press and in Parliament - but she certainly did go on to say there are serious issues about foreign meddling and not just at the federal level. She is bound by her oath to not reveal state secrets but she did mention a host of issues from politicians accepting state-sponsored travel to bussing in voters for leadership races and the influence of corporations, foreign and domestic. What she did share is none of the three opposition leaders from the Bloc, the NDP and the CPC, have gotten the clearance to read the report and none of them have read the report they keep shouting about in Parliament. "Release the names!" they shout. Well she read the report and there is no list of names. MAYBE THEY SHOULD SHUT THE FUCK UP AND READ THE REPORT FIRST. From there, she asks they behave like adults and not partisan hacks to deal with a very serious issue.
It is truly disturbing that for the last week, politicians who haven't read a report have been yelling about a list of MPs that doesn't exist and we only found out there is no list from the one person who read the report. This is infuriating. How much time have they wasted playing stupid partisan games at the expense of our democracy.
In any case, to start the column with May is meh and leap into the insidious goings on in nomination races and speculations these are foreign interference seems like sausage making to me in the absence of information. But we definitely need more transparency about our political parties and the goings on because there is plenty of stink. We do know the CPC's 2022 leadership race was interfered with by Modi because CSIS released this intel in 2022. This becomes even more alarming when you see Poilievre and his caucus - and conservative pundits in newspapers - defending Modi after the assassination on Canadian soil by Indian agents. US intelligence confirmed Modi had sent hit squads to North America to take out specific individuals. Poilievre's entire caucus - except for one MP - did not show up for an emergency debate on Modi's hit. That stinks to high heaven. After the hit, Poilievre stated that he will "repair relations with India" and accused Trudeau of ruining it by making accusations about hit squads. Wtf?
Our political leaders are clowns at this point. Poilievre - an autocrat with no plan except power - is the worst of them, with Singh not far behind. Trudeau is the reactionary clown who finds himself continuously having to fend off Poilievre, and his caucus of Marjorie Taylor Greenes. Parliament is a shit show, while we out here cope with very serious problems from affordability to climate change.
My expectation of our political leaders is get the frickin security clearance and read the report. IT'S THEIR OBLIGATION. From there we need transparency about foreign influence on our MPs and Senators - and corporations - and the agreements being signed with foreign countries like China and India. The Asia-Pacific foundation, for example, is basically an agency of China. The FIPA agreement signed by Harper in 2012 which favours China and erodes our sovereignty, should be scrapped. Get rid of it. He never got the OK from Canadians to do it and was overwhelmingly criticized even by conservatives like Diane Francis. Harper sucked up to China way more than naive Trudeau ever did but you'd never know the CPC engineered FIPA the way they talk about China today. See Michael Chong who supported FIPA now feigning outrage. The difference between the Liberals and Conservatives on China and other dictatorships is Liberals pretended they are harmless and Conservatives (reform cons) essentially admire them. But the root of the problem is western corporations pushed governments to embrace dictatorships in the 80s so they could offshore manufacturing and lower costs. This increased our dependency on them and created a situation where we compromised, turned a blind eye, etc. If we care about roots of problems, start there. Capitalism pushed western countries to accept dictatorships and the politicians who work for them went along with it.
May didn't get into the foreign trolls flooding social media who work in state troll farms in India, China and Russia but these certainly exist with their fake Canadian flags and handles like "Concerned Canadian" who emphatically is not. And even the domestic ones who immigrated here and spend their time promoting Putin propaganda like "Kat Kanada", an insidious full-time troll living in Nanaimo. How she got into this country is what I'd like to know. Every Russian troll is shilling for Poilievre because Poilievre is a Brexiteer who admires European far right parties who want the EU broken up, and who is very likely to erode funding for Ukraine. Putin has infiltrated the far right in Europe. He wants all western nations divided.
Woven through the analysis is the challenge of addressing this issue when we do not have a common and accepted understanding of what constitues foreign interference. Recall that during the earlier discussions of this issue we learned there was a disagreement between security intelligence officials and the NSIA as to whether a report described foreign interference or acceptable diplomatic activity. And to some degree they could both have been correct. An intelligence agent for a foreign government posted to an embassy or consulate pretending to be a normal diplomat will undoubtedly undertake normal diplomatic activities. And such activities might ultimately be in furtherance of engaging in foreign interference, but chatting up an MP at a cultural event is not in and of itself foreign interference.
It bears repeating. The only foreign interference going on here are the various “five eyes” intelligence agencies that are trying to ramp up tensions with China by insinuating some Canadian politicians are on the take. No need to provide proof because it’s “classified” and “national security “ is at stake. You just have to take our word for it. Intelligence agencies like CSIS are by their nature are secretive and anti-democratic.
No doubt PP is promising in return to boost defence spending if elected. Which means he’ll be buying a whole crapload of overpriced overhyped US weapons systems which will boost U.S. defence industry stocks.
If it’s foreign interference you looking for check out the 1963 election. JFK had such an intense dislike for PM John Diefenbaker that he personally directed the State Department to help Liberal opposition leader Lester Pearson win which he did.
A lot of the discussion around this is focused on the assumption that it’s mostly “ethnic” politicians of various sorts engaged in questionable activities. I think that’s probably a mistaken assumption. No lack of generic straight white politicians who are happy to see a few extra votes appear in a tight race, or receive a glowing endorsement in media that’s exclusively targeted at diaspora communities
The discussion is also focused on what legal lines may have been crossed. I think that’s a mistake. It’s not so long ago that ethical, not legal, lapses routinely ended political and public service careers. As it should. When we vote for our representatives we’re supposed to be judging their judgment.
Evan, your honest analysis of this hysteria cuts through the partisan gamesmanship like a prairie storm drops the temperature 10 degrees. Less heat, more light. Thank you!
I had to laugh over your description of getting friends to nominations.... were you at my university students' union election?
Pizza and beer are powerful drivers of politics across this country, at every level!
Excellent analysis. I would agree that this whole topic appears to become more into focus. Last year with Fife and Cooper torqued leaks we saw little incomplete vignettes that had been carefully selected to make the current government look bad. Now we are getting a more complete and balanced insight of what is really going on.
It is probably not a surprise that with the current lack of rules around nominations there is ample opportunity for foreign entities to assist a particular candidate with or without the candidate’s knowledge or participation. I don’t know if we are seeing this right now with the CPC nominations throughout the country, I get more the impression that this is Poilievre/Byrne, and perhaps Harper, shaping the roster of candidates to their liking (not too many independent thinkers, please).
It is a different story with leadership races. There is so much smoke around Poilievre leadership race that there must be multiple fires. First there is Mike Roman of the IDU and MAGA doing stuff in Ottawa during the convoy (why would an American be interested in a protest in Canada?), which led to O’Toole’s departure as leader. Then there is the involvement of India in the membership sign-ups. Followed by the disqualification of Patrick Brown with the Poilievre campaign paying the legal bills of the accuser. The whole thing smells.
I have no doubt that Poilievre is neck deep in foreign interference when it comes to his own leadership campaign. It is also the only plausible explanation why he does not want to get a classified briefing. I don’t know if this is all going to come out before the next election, but if it does, it would certainly be poetic justice in my opinion.
So, what is left? A bunch of MPs and Senators that have been too close with foreign entities. Documented by a spy agency that has trouble providing clear guidance on what is a hard fact and what is merely a rumour. Not terribly helpful and certainly not something for the PM to get excited about.
Finally, talking about this spy agency, it has been one year since the unauthorized leaks and the leaker or leakers have still not been caught. Is our spy agency really that incompetent it cannot find the culprits? Or is there another reason?
"in general, the message was much ado about nothing."
I don't know what you listened to, but I listened to the entire hour of May's presser and that was not the conclusion I came to. What she stated was "there is no list of MPs" - this alleged list that has been the constant topic in the press and in Parliament - but she certainly did go on to say there are serious issues about foreign meddling and not just at the federal level. She is bound by her oath to not reveal state secrets but she did mention a host of issues from politicians accepting state-sponsored travel to bussing in voters for leadership races and the influence of corporations, foreign and domestic. What she did share is none of the three opposition leaders from the Bloc, the NDP and the CPC, have gotten the clearance to read the report and none of them have read the report they keep shouting about in Parliament. "Release the names!" they shout. Well she read the report and there is no list of names. MAYBE THEY SHOULD SHUT THE FUCK UP AND READ THE REPORT FIRST. From there, she asks they behave like adults and not partisan hacks to deal with a very serious issue.
It is truly disturbing that for the last week, politicians who haven't read a report have been yelling about a list of MPs that doesn't exist and we only found out there is no list from the one person who read the report. This is infuriating. How much time have they wasted playing stupid partisan games at the expense of our democracy.
In any case, to start the column with May is meh and leap into the insidious goings on in nomination races and speculations these are foreign interference seems like sausage making to me in the absence of information. But we definitely need more transparency about our political parties and the goings on because there is plenty of stink. We do know the CPC's 2022 leadership race was interfered with by Modi because CSIS released this intel in 2022. This becomes even more alarming when you see Poilievre and his caucus - and conservative pundits in newspapers - defending Modi after the assassination on Canadian soil by Indian agents. US intelligence confirmed Modi had sent hit squads to North America to take out specific individuals. Poilievre's entire caucus - except for one MP - did not show up for an emergency debate on Modi's hit. That stinks to high heaven. After the hit, Poilievre stated that he will "repair relations with India" and accused Trudeau of ruining it by making accusations about hit squads. Wtf?
Our political leaders are clowns at this point. Poilievre - an autocrat with no plan except power - is the worst of them, with Singh not far behind. Trudeau is the reactionary clown who finds himself continuously having to fend off Poilievre, and his caucus of Marjorie Taylor Greenes. Parliament is a shit show, while we out here cope with very serious problems from affordability to climate change.
My expectation of our political leaders is get the frickin security clearance and read the report. IT'S THEIR OBLIGATION. From there we need transparency about foreign influence on our MPs and Senators - and corporations - and the agreements being signed with foreign countries like China and India. The Asia-Pacific foundation, for example, is basically an agency of China. The FIPA agreement signed by Harper in 2012 which favours China and erodes our sovereignty, should be scrapped. Get rid of it. He never got the OK from Canadians to do it and was overwhelmingly criticized even by conservatives like Diane Francis. Harper sucked up to China way more than naive Trudeau ever did but you'd never know the CPC engineered FIPA the way they talk about China today. See Michael Chong who supported FIPA now feigning outrage. The difference between the Liberals and Conservatives on China and other dictatorships is Liberals pretended they are harmless and Conservatives (reform cons) essentially admire them. But the root of the problem is western corporations pushed governments to embrace dictatorships in the 80s so they could offshore manufacturing and lower costs. This increased our dependency on them and created a situation where we compromised, turned a blind eye, etc. If we care about roots of problems, start there. Capitalism pushed western countries to accept dictatorships and the politicians who work for them went along with it.
May didn't get into the foreign trolls flooding social media who work in state troll farms in India, China and Russia but these certainly exist with their fake Canadian flags and handles like "Concerned Canadian" who emphatically is not. And even the domestic ones who immigrated here and spend their time promoting Putin propaganda like "Kat Kanada", an insidious full-time troll living in Nanaimo. How she got into this country is what I'd like to know. Every Russian troll is shilling for Poilievre because Poilievre is a Brexiteer who admires European far right parties who want the EU broken up, and who is very likely to erode funding for Ukraine. Putin has infiltrated the far right in Europe. He wants all western nations divided.
Evan, I'm trying to reach you. Can you please drop me a note. adrienne@nationalobserver.com
Woven through the analysis is the challenge of addressing this issue when we do not have a common and accepted understanding of what constitues foreign interference. Recall that during the earlier discussions of this issue we learned there was a disagreement between security intelligence officials and the NSIA as to whether a report described foreign interference or acceptable diplomatic activity. And to some degree they could both have been correct. An intelligence agent for a foreign government posted to an embassy or consulate pretending to be a normal diplomat will undoubtedly undertake normal diplomatic activities. And such activities might ultimately be in furtherance of engaging in foreign interference, but chatting up an MP at a cultural event is not in and of itself foreign interference.
It bears repeating. The only foreign interference going on here are the various “five eyes” intelligence agencies that are trying to ramp up tensions with China by insinuating some Canadian politicians are on the take. No need to provide proof because it’s “classified” and “national security “ is at stake. You just have to take our word for it. Intelligence agencies like CSIS are by their nature are secretive and anti-democratic.
No doubt PP is promising in return to boost defence spending if elected. Which means he’ll be buying a whole crapload of overpriced overhyped US weapons systems which will boost U.S. defence industry stocks.
Can you be less obviously a foreign troll? Good grief. Phoning it in today are we?
If it’s foreign interference you looking for check out the 1963 election. JFK had such an intense dislike for PM John Diefenbaker that he personally directed the State Department to help Liberal opposition leader Lester Pearson win which he did.
A lot of the discussion around this is focused on the assumption that it’s mostly “ethnic” politicians of various sorts engaged in questionable activities. I think that’s probably a mistaken assumption. No lack of generic straight white politicians who are happy to see a few extra votes appear in a tight race, or receive a glowing endorsement in media that’s exclusively targeted at diaspora communities
The discussion is also focused on what legal lines may have been crossed. I think that’s a mistake. It’s not so long ago that ethical, not legal, lapses routinely ended political and public service careers. As it should. When we vote for our representatives we’re supposed to be judging their judgment.
Evan, your honest analysis of this hysteria cuts through the partisan gamesmanship like a prairie storm drops the temperature 10 degrees. Less heat, more light. Thank you!
I had to laugh over your description of getting friends to nominations.... were you at my university students' union election?
Pizza and beer are powerful drivers of politics across this country, at every level!