Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. I heartily endorse everything that Mr. Mulroney has just said, and I'd like to go on to the serious allegations made in media reports that Chinese diplomats in Canada or other agents of China's Communist Party regime have been complicit in unlawful actions to influence the results of the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections.

Canada-China Relations committee  I agree with Margaret's assessment. I think it's the most realistic. In terms of decoupling, it is more likely to come from the Chinese side than our side, given the way things are developing in China with regard to Mr. Xi's approach to the market economy. It looks like they'll be closing off to a lot of Canadian business in the future, but in the meantime I think the measures that Margaret is suggesting are excellent.

Canada-China Relations committee  I have no proof that a single candidate lost their seat because of the last election. I was—

Canada-China Relations committee  No. I haven't said that any candidates lost their seat. We don't know why people go to the polling station or why they put the X on the candidate that they do. However, what I was involved in was the disinformation about Kenny Chiu on WeChat and attempting to trace the source of this disinformation that slandered Mr.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think that the issue of election interference by the Chinese Communist Party is a well-established policy of the United Front Work Department's operations throughout the world, coordinated through the embassy and consulates. This is nothing particularly new or distinctive to Canada, but it's certainly something that we should stop.

Canada-China Relations committee  The procedure and House affairs committee will be investigating this matter. I'll be giving evidence to that committee.

Canada-China Relations committee  I'm not as confident as Mr. Breau in the trustworthiness of the Chinese Communist regime to enforce our laws as we would hope they would. The concern, of course, is that China is an unstable environment, and that should factor into any investment decisions. Picking up on what Margaret said, I'm currently in Berlin attending a conference of 82 countries with 240 delegates—including members of the Canadian public service—to try to come up with a coordinated response to Chinese interference activities.

Canada-China Relations committee  I agree with everything in the Hong Kong Watch report. I think the evidence given last week by Mr. Tohti and Ms. Calverley was golden. I hope you'll take it into consideration in your report.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think it's very hard for our government to make such a dramatic change. We could also.... We could be doing something similar to the Foreign Agents Registration Act in the United States or the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act in Australia. As you say, it would be easy to do, because the language is there.

Canada-China Relations committee  I would prefer that our pension plans look elsewhere for profitable investments, but if we're insisting that we're going to continue to regard China as a systemic rival in the first part of the week and in the latter part of the week say that we can engage with them, then we really have to be going about this with much more care and transparency than we're seeing.

Canada-China Relations committee  I think that Margaret's “D” is perhaps a little generous. We really have to be much more aware of the implications of our investment in terms of whether we're enabling a regime that is potentially hostile to us. I quite agree with Margaret about the technologies that are being used to enable the Uighur genocide, but I think there are a lot of other areas in which, unless we really are on top of exactly where the money is going and who is using it, it can be used for things that are hostile both to our values and to Canada's national interest.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much. Canada's new Indo-Pacific policy defines China as an “increasingly disruptive global power.” Others of our like-minded democratic allies are using more straightforward language in identifying that their national policies should regard China as a strategic competitor or systemic rival.

Public Safety committee  I think we have done one good thing. I was very pleased with the government's budget with regard to critical minerals. As the situation develops, and as I believe that Russia will move more into alliance with China, it will be challenging for us to engage in secondary sanctions against China if China does with Russia what it's been doing with North Korea: facilitating the breaking of the sanctions that we are imposing on Russia to try to induce Russia to come into compliance with the norms of the international, rules-based order.

Public Safety committee  I'm of the opinion that it would be better if these matters were addressed through a committee of Parliament—people with security clearances—with perhaps some sessions held in camera, not publicly. I would rather see it as part of the regular parliamentary process. I'm not aware of any other country in the world that has anything comparable to our process, and I am concerned about whether it can be as effective as the committees of other parliaments in terms of ensuring that our public safety and national security agencies are being fully accountable to Parliament and that they are providing parliamentarians with the information they need to draft or change legislation to better meet the threats.

Public Safety committee  Yes, if you look at the United Kingdom last year, it expelled three spies posing as journalists working in the U.K. It revealed that there was an agent of the Chinese state, Christine Lee, who was giving generous donations to certain politicians who then, one presumes in response, would be representing the interests of China over the interests of their own country.