Remarks by Canada’s spy chief that foreign powers, such as Beijing, control some Canadian politicians caused an uproar on Thursday as China’s President Hu Jintao kicked off a state visit to Canada.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Richard Fadden told public broadcaster CBC on the eve of Hu’s visit that municipal officials and cabinet ministers from two Canadian provinces were being influenced by foreign governments.
Tung Chan, a former Vancouver city councilor and head of an immigrant services organization, said Fadden’s remarks “cast shadows and cast doubts on the loyalty of a whole group of people, particularly those committed to serve the public.”
“It’s not helpful to what we’re trying to do in creating multicultural harmony,” he told CBC.
He was echoed by several members of the Chinese-Canadian community, as well as provincial premiers and city mayors.
Hu was to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper this afternoon before heading to G8 and G20 summits in the Toronto area.
Earlier this week, Fadden told CBC: “We’re in fact a bit worried in a couple of provinces that we have an indication that there’s some political figures who have developed quite an attachment to foreign countries.”
“The individual becomes in a position to make decisions that affect the country or the province or a municipality,” he said. “All of a sudden, decisions aren’t taken on the basis of the public good but on the basis of another country’s preoccupations.”
At least five foreign regimes were known to be surreptitiously recruiting future political prospects in universities or through social clubs, including some Mideast countries, he suggested.
But China is the most aggressive, he said in a recent speech to police chiefs in Toronto.
“You invite somebody back to the homeland. You pay (for) their trips and all of a sudden you discover that when an event is occurring that is of particular interest to country X, you call up and you ask the person to take a particular view,” Fadden told CBC.
He said targeted politicians and bureaucrats see it as a long-standing relationship and may have no idea they are being used.
“There are several municipal politicians in British Columbia and in at least two provinces there are ministers of the Crown who we think are under at least the general influence of a foreign government,” he said.
Fadden later backtracked, issuing a statement claiming that CSIS had “not deemed the cases to be of sufficient concern to bring them to the attention of provincial authorities.”
