Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd like to move a motion on notice pertaining to the order of reference from the House arising from the question of privilege concerning the intimidation campaign orchestrated by an operative at Beijing's Toronto consulate against the member from Wellington-Halton Hills, Michael Chong.
The motion will be distributed. I will now read the motion into the record:
That, in relation to its order of reference of Wednesday, May 10, 2023, concerning the intimidation campaign orchestrated by Wei Zhao against the Member for Wellington—Halton Hills and other Members, the committee
(a) make use, for the purposes of this study, of the evidence received during its study on foreign election interference, without limiting the witnesses who may be called;
(b) make use, for the purposes of this study, of the evidence received by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics during its study on foreign interference, without limiting the witnesses who may be called;
(c) invite each of the following to appear on their own:
(i) the Honourable Michael Chong, for one hour,
(ii) Eric Janse, Acting Clerk of the House of Commons, for one hour,
(iii) the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, for one hour,
(iv) the Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, for one hour,
(v) the Honourable Bill Blair, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness, for one hour,
(vi) Jody Thomas, National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for two hours,
(vii) David Vigneault, Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, for two hours,
(viii) David Morrison, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Acting National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for two hours,
(ix) Mike MacDonald, former Acting National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for one hour,
(x) Vincent Rigby, former National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister, for one hour,
(xi) Michael Duheme, Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, for one hour, and
(xii) Cong Peiwu, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Canada, for two hours;
(d) directs the parties to provide their preliminary lists of other witnesses to the clerk of the committee within one week;
(e) order the production,
(i) within one week, of the July 2021 CSIS report entitled “People’s Republic of China Foreign Interference in Canada: A Critical National Security Threat”, together with all records concerning the transmission to, distribution within, analysis of and handling by, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development and the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, of this report, and
(ii) within three weeks, of all other memoranda, briefing notes, e-mails, records of conversations, and any other relevant documents, including any drafts, which are in the possession of any government department or agency, including the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, the Critical Election Incident Protocol Panel, any minister’s office and the Prime Minister’s Office, containing information concerning planning or efforts by, or on behalf of, foreign governments or other foreign state actors to intimidate a Member of the House of Commons, provided that
(iii) these documents be deposited without redaction with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, in both official languages,
(iv) a copy of the documents shall also be deposited with the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, in both official languages, with any proposed redaction of information which, in the government’s opinion, could reasonably be expected to compromise the identities of employees or sources or intelligence-collecting methods of Canadian or allied intelligence agencies,
(v) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall promptly notify the committee whether the Office is satisfied that the documents were produced as ordered, and, if not, the Chair shall be instructed to present forthwith, on behalf of the committee, a report to the House outlining the material facts of the situation,
(vi) the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall assess the redactions proposed by the government, pursuant to subparagraph (iv), to determine whether the Office agrees that the proposed redactions conform with the criteria set out in subparagraph (iv) and
(A) if it agrees, it shall provide the documents, as redacted by the government pursuant to subparagraph (iv), to the clerk of the committee, or
(B) if it disagrees with some or all of the proposed redactions, it shall provide a copy of the documents, redacted in the manner the Office determines would conform with the criteria set out in paragraph (iv), together with a report indicating the number, extent and nature of the government's proposed redactions which were disagreed with, to the clerk of the committee, and
(vii) the clerk of the committee shall cause the documents, provided by the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel pursuant to subparagraph (vi), to be distributed to the members of the committee and to be published on the committee’s website forthwith upon receipt; and
(f) makes the evidence received during this study available for its study on foreign election interference.
Madam Chair, this motion arises from a question of privilege on a matter that is about as serious as it gets. We have a situation in which, two years ago, an accredited Beijing diplomat at the Toronto consulate arranged to intimidate a sitting member of Parliament by threatening to sanction and punish his family in Hong Kong because that member put forward a motion calling out the Beijing regime for perpetrating genocide against Uyghur Muslims.
This is an attack on this House and on every member of Parliament. It's an attack on our democracy. It is an attempt to interfere with a member of this House's ability to do his job to stand up on behalf of his constituents and on behalf of Canadians, which every member of this House should be able to do free of interference.
CSIS identified that this Beijing operative, this Beijing diplomat, had been involved in orchestrating this intimidation campaign two years ago. It was revealed in a memo and documented in a memo, yet for two years, the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, Mr. Chong, was kept in the dark. The Prime Minister, incredibly, claims that he first learned of this in The Globe and Mail and not two years ago, even though the Prime Minister's national security adviser, Jody Thomas, told Mr. Chong that the memo had been distributed to relevant departments as well as to the national security adviser of the PCO.
One of two scenarios is possible, neither of which is good for the Prime Minister. One is that the Prime Minister is not telling the truth, that he was briefed and that he kept the member for Wellington-Halton Hills in the dark. He covered it up and turned a blind eye to a Beijing diplomat intimidating a sitting member of Parliament and threatening the safety and security of that member's family. The other scenario is that the Prime Minister is incompetent and has set up a structure in which he has been kept in the dark and is not being brought up to speed with respect to what as I said at the outset is a matter that could not be more serious: a Beijing diplomat trying to intimidate a sitting member of Parliament when he's doing his job by threatening the safety and security of his family.
In either case, it underscores that this Prime Minister is simply unfit for the job when it comes to protecting Canada's national interests and defending the safety and security of Canadians. It is further evidence that this Prime Minister does not take Beijing's interference seriously.
I have to say it's very disappointing that, in the face of the Prime Minister's inaction, his incompetence, his neglect and, arguably, the possibility that he is lying or not being forthcoming—I'll withdraw lying—or not telling the full truth, the Prime Minister would go out on a campaign to try to attack and impugn the character of the member for Wellington—Halton Hills by spreading misinformation that the member had been briefed two years ago when he had not. He also sent and directed two members of Parliament, including the member for Kingston and the Islands, to spread that misinformation in the House. That's about as low as it gets.