Unfortunately, yes, it was.
The level of understanding of the China file, specifically, is quite poor across the Canadian government, even within CSIS at times. Unfortunately, the threat is not properly recognized or understood. The Chinese operate and think differently. Their operational capability is much different; their methods are over our heads.
We must take a more rigorous approach, without necessarily being exclusionary or racist. We certainly need to be a lot more rigorous if we want to understand the ins and outs of how they operate.
Understanding the game of power and influence is crucial. The Chinese use influence as leverage, whether it's investing money or cozying up to elected officials. The idea is to alter the course of events in their favour.
Whenever I brought up the issue at CSIS or within the government, all too often, I was told that we had to give China an opportunity because of our capitalist system. The Chinese, however, are the ones who invented capitalism. They are much smarter than we are at exploiting capitalism. They know exactly which levers to pull to exert the influence they want.
There is a lack of awareness and a failure to listen on the government's part. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, for instance, can, at a certain point in the process, consult intelligence services on issues of national security. If the intelligence service flags a risk, the department can refuse to let a foreign company set up shop in Canada without having to disclose certain information. In this case, that would mean a Chinese company. However, that mechanism is hardly used, and the concerns of intelligence services tend to fall on deaf ears.