Canada-China Relations Committee on Oct. 4th, 2022

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

That's right. I believe she said this past week in Washington that it will be released before the year ends. I believe that's what she said.

[Paul Thoppil]

That is correct.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you.

I have another question. It sort of touches on immigration and Global Affairs.

Recently, The Globe and Mail reported that police from the People's Republic of China have established police stations here in Canada that are being used in a worrying crackdown on citizens here in Canada.

Has Global Affairs made any representations to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China about how unacceptable this is?

[Paul Thoppil]

I'm going to ask my colleague, Weldon Epp, to address this question.

[Weldon Epp, Director General, Trade and Diplomacy, North Asia, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. It's an important one.

To come to the answer most directly, we regularly, at senior levels both in Ottawa and Beijing, raise our concerns with growing evidence of growing foreign interference from the PRC in Canada.

With respect to this specific report, we're working closely with partners to understand whether these media reports are based in fact. As Mr. Chair and the members will understand, there is space for a legitimate police liaison co-operation, state to state, but the allegations reported in the press would fall well outside of that. We would have deep concerns if they proved to be true.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

As I understand it, there are police operating in Canada from outside of Canada from time to time. My understanding is that there are bilateral agreements that govern those activities. We don't have a bilateral treaty with the People's Republic of China that would allow Chinese police to be resident here in Canada and open police stations here, as I understand it.

[Weldon Epp]

That's correct.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Has the Government of Canada made representations to the People's Republic of China about how unacceptable it is that it has established three police stations here in Canada?

They are reportedly being used to intimidate Canadians and even coerce them into going back to China. It's been reported that some 50 police stations have been established across the world, three of which are in Canada. Those police stations have coerced a quarter of a million people to go back to China by threatening repercussions on their families back in the People's Republic of China.

I'm wondering, because of the seriousness of these reports, whether or not the Canadian government has made representations to the Beijing government about how unacceptable this is.

[Weldon Epp]

To repeat, we take these allegations very seriously. We're working with partner agencies to confirm whether there's a basis to the allegations. We will take appropriate measures if they are found to be true.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Has somebody from the government gone to units 1 and 2 at 220 Royal Crest Court in Markham, Ontario? Apparently, that's one of the three police stations that are being operated by Chinese police here on Canadian soil.

[Weldon Epp]

We are aware of the allegations, and again, we're working with partner agencies that have responsibilities in this regard. I'm not at liberty to discuss the operational steps being taken, but the allegations, if they prove to be true, will absolutely be the subject of communications with the Chinese government, because they fall outside of any legitimate police-to-police liaison role as the RCMP would normally have—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken Hardie]

Thank you, Mr. Chong. You're out of time.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken Hardie]

Next is Ms. Yip for six minutes, please.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to follow up on Mr. Chong's comments, because I think it is really important to reassure Canadians across the country, especially those residing in Scarborough and Markham, which is where these alleged police centres or administrative centres are.

How will the harassment, intimidation and coercion be investigated?

[Weldon Epp]

With respect, again, we take these allegations very seriously and we're coordinating with the agencies that have the lead responsibility for police investigations. I think further questions with respect to the operational steps that would be taken next should be directed to the RCMP.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

If I have a constituent that is being harassed, what can they do?

Just go to the local police...?

[Weldon Epp]

We, as I said, take very seriously all allegations from the community, be they Canadian citizens of various origins or backgrounds or religious persuasions. We regularly have conversations with them and, precisely, as the member just suggested, when it comes to specific activities that constitute harassment or interference, we encourage individuals not only to let Global Affairs know, such that we can undertake appropriate communications with the Chinese government, but they need to report these to the police.

The operational nature of investigating these and pursuing individuals on Canadian soil who are undertaking illegal or criminal activities has to be pursued by police forces. We take on board this information. We speak to the RCMP regularly, and we raise these concerns diplomatically when we have the opportunity and the reason to do so.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

How would this constituent contact Global Affairs?

[Weldon Epp]

I would welcome them to reach out through either the team who is in front of you, which is the team that manages our relations with the PRC, if it's with respect to PRC-related concerns, and as we have said before, to this committee as well.

There is growing evidence, not least that which was communicated to the public through the report by the NSICOP committee, and that evidence suggests that the largest source of foreign interference in Canada by foreign state actors is coming from PRC sources. We take that very seriously. It's a subject that we have regular conversations on, including with regular Canadians, but when it comes to documenting actual incidents and following them up on Canadian soil, we need them to also engage the police services to so.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

Is there a centre or is there anything that is being developed that can help people call in, for example, and that just focuses on foreign interference, like a hotline?

[Weldon Epp]

Thank you for the question.

There is a whole-of-government approach under way that the Government of Canada is developing, which GAC is a partner to and we're involved in informing. That approach obviously is not geographic-specific, but deals with the issue of foreign interference on Canadian soil, be it cyber or be it in person. We're supporting the efforts to bring that new approach forward.

I would also say that we work very closely with the like-minded, because some of the concerns that we have are concerns that play out in other jurisdictions. Then, not least, we work in multilateral and minilateral fora to address this issue through the G7 rapid response mechanism and other tools. The Government of Canada takes a holistic approach to this, and there is more work under way to address this issue.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Thank you.

I'd like to now direct my next question to Mr. Gionet and Mr. Linder.

I'd like to commend the work that IRCC is doing with the Hong Kong pathway. Given that this particular pathway is an economic class of immigration and given the fact that these candidates are destined for permanent resident status after fulfilling all the requirements, why are they not eligible for settlement support, including language, employment and mental health services, like other applicants in other similar programs?

[Glen Linder]

The terms of reference of our settlement program allow us to extend settlement services to permanent residents in Canada. That means anyone from Hong Kong who applies for and comes through the permanent resident stream that I mentioned, the special one we put in place for Hong Kong, which has about 1,800 applicants so far, or indeed any Hong Kongers who come through any of the other streams we have open, whether it's regular economic streams, provincial nominee programs, family reunification or those who apply for asylum and are granted asylum, all of those people absolutely qualify for settlement supports in Canada.

Settlement supports extend to things like language training and assistance in accessing the job market. To date in our temporary resident terms of reference, terms and conditions, settlement services do not apply to temporary residents. Nonetheless there is support available through community networks. There's obviously, as colleagues have pointed out, an active diaspora community in Canada that assists many temporary residents.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken Hardie]

Thank you very much, Ms. Yip.

Monsieur Bergeron, you have six minutes, sir.