TORONTO—Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a luncheon of the Economic Club of Toronto on Monday that people should not be surprised foreign regimes are trying to influence Canadian politicians and senior bureaucrats.
The statements came in response to a reporter’s question as to whether the minister had been briefed by CSIS director Richard Fadden on Chinese officials trying to influence Canadian officials.
Toews dodged the question and responded by saying that foreign influence is a matter of course and Fadden’s comments were not as sensational as media reports would imply.
“I have heard Mr. Fadden’s comments, I was somewhat surprised by the media reaction,” he said, adding that the topic has been in newspapers across the country for the last 20 or 30 years.
“There is nothing remarkable about the fact that governments may seek to influence politicians or senior bureaucrats. I find it astounding that that would be a story. Mr. Fadden, I think, spoke in a perfectly common sense, general way in respect to that particular issue.”
The minister said he would not speak to operational matters related to the intelligence agency, and the question was the last of three allocated to the media present. Attendees were also permitted to ask three questions.
Fadden made headlines in late June when, on the eve of Chinese leader Hu Jintao’s visit to Canada, he disclosed that some politicians were coming under the influence of foreign governments, singling out China as a country particularly aggressive in its recruiting efforts.
Fadden also warned that Chinese authorities organized demonstrations against the Canadian government regarding some China policies.
His comments came the day before The Epoch Times received a recording of speeches made to Chinese students inside the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa ordering them to “battle” against Chinese dissident groups.
A consular official, Liu Shaohua, first secretary of the education section, told the students that the welcome rallies in Ottawa for Hu’s arrival were part of a political struggle against Falun Gong, Uyghurs, democracy activists, and others who would be protesting human rights abuses in China.
He also told the students to keep the embassy’s involvement secret.
“You do not talk about it outside. Do not talk about it to anyone except to people in this circle,” he said.
Those students, all on Chinese-state scholarships, were told that because they were there on the regime’s dollar, they had no choice but to show up for the rallies.
A coalition of 13 organizations, including Canada-based Tibetan and Uyghur groups, as well as One Free World International, have called on Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to have Liu expelled from Canada for his actions.
