RCMP chief says there’s more to be done for people facing threats from abroad

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says the federal police force should–and will–do more to help people in Canada who face threats, intimidation and coercion by foreign governments, including China’s.

“If people are getting intimidated, as soon as they’re brought to our attention, there’s full investigations,” Lucki told the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations Thursday night, noting that despite the RCMP’s 1-800 number to report threats to national security, “by the sounds of it, it sounds like we need to better communication.” 

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair also appeared before the committee, which was set up in Dec. 2019 to explore Canada-China relations.

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair (pictured last June) told the committee that if people in Canada are intimidated or threatened the government has “the tools to respond appropriately.” (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

“For those Canadians who may be subject to intimidation or inappropriate influence in Canadian society, we want them to know that we’re here for them and that we’re here to support them,” Blair said, according to reporting by the CBC’s Catharine Tunney.

“If they need our help, we have the ability and the tools to respond appropriately.”

Blair also said Canadians should be wary of using Chinese social media platforms, warning that information posted on them could used for “hostile activities” by foreign states.

Their testimony followed a series of reports and incidents indicating and documenting intimidation by China’s government and the Communist Party of China.

• Last March Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, released a report showing how China has been pressing their diaspora and groups based on Canadian campuses as part of “significant and sustained” foreign interference activities in Canada.

• In May, a coalition of human rights groups led by Amnesty International warned that Chinese government officials and supporters of the Communist Party of China were increasingly resorting to “threats, bullying and harassment” to intimidate and silence activists in Canada.

• Earlier this month, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service,  David Vigneault, outlined how hostile foreign governments, notably China and Russia, were “aggressively” targeting Canadians, seeking a political and economic advantage.

• Last September, Hong Kong activists in British Columbia said they had been threatened online and were told by police there was little authorities could do.

Thursday’s committee hearing came as relations between Canada continue to deteriorate.

On Tuesday, the Chinese government lashed out at Canada, accusing Ottawa of deliberately smearing China and seriously violating international law, after the House of Commons voted on Monday to declare that Beijing is committing genocide against Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in the western Xinjiang region.

Two weeks ago, China severely criticized Canada for joining 57 other countries in endorsing a declaration denouncing state-sponsored arbitrary detention of foreign citizens for political purposes.

Canada led the initiative–released on Feb. 15 on–to denounce the practice of arbitrary arrests, but Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau refused to link it to China’s detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were arrested in Dec. 2018 shortly after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.

On Feb. 6, 13 MPs from all five major federal parties released a letter urging the IOC to move the 2022  Winter Olympics out of China because of the treatment of the Uighurs.

In October, a Canadian parliamentary subcommittee issued a report that concluded that China’s treatment of the Uighurs meets the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 Genocide Convention.

That, too, prompted a severe rebuke from Beijing.

At their a virtual meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden spent a good deal of time discussing how to deal with Beijing.

With files from CBC News (Catharine Tunney), The Canadian Press, RCI

National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians,