Information & Ethics committee  —for people who don't have digital literacy training or background knowledge to identify these as state narratives.

Information & Ethics committee  I think my colleague, Ms. Lau, would actually have a lot to add on this.

Information & Ethics committee  Without people with cultural and linguistic expertise in making these decisions, no, we do not have the capacity to truly understand Beijing or the leadership right now.

Information & Ethics committee  I apologize. I believe I'm having some Internet issues, but if you can hear me, I can provide an answer.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you so much. I think there are crucial needs to rebuild trust in our democratic institutions and for the public to be able to watch and understand what's happening. It's very important. On the other hand, I also understand that the diaspora communities who would have wanted to participate in this conversation and in this inquiry may not feel safe in a public forum and may not feel safe in an open investigation.

Information & Ethics committee  I can point folks to our report, “In Plain Sight”, particularly the “Information and Narrative Discursion Warfare” section. While the CCP uses their foremost state platforms on WeChat or Weibo to talk about their ideology and narratives, those narratives are also repeated by media outlets that have friendly relationships with the CCP.

Information & Ethics committee  First and foremost, we live in a country where there's a long history of systemic and institutionalized violence towards racialized peoples. I think, particularly for the Chinese community, many of us are still fresh with the memories of head tax and other forms of exclusion. To begin with, there is a level of distrust and a level of insecurity to approach the police on this issue.

Information & Ethics committee  I really appreciate what you mentioned. Having someone who could help check our phones and help check our cybersecurity network, I think that's something that most dissidents—almost all dissidents—would take advantage of. We do not have any guidelines aside from what we develop.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it's true to say that there is a level of dependency on the community level. Due to the underfunding of diaspora and racialized communities, we often have to look elsewhere for funding resources. That becomes a point of vulnerability where we're able to obtain funding from less reliable or suspicious sources.

Information & Ethics committee  There is a global ambition that is being intensified under the current CCP leadership. It's not only to seek ideological alliance. It's really about advancing its economic and political power globally. We see that in various means, not only through foreign influence and interference but also through the economic investments that it's undertaking.

Information & Ethics committee  I will jump in as well. The foreign influence transparency scheme in Australia is actually limited to political engagement. It still leaves a huge gap in other sectors such as research, private sector and civil society, where foreign agents and foreign-affiliated agents are able to use their resources and money to intervene.

Information & Ethics committee  I think we can learn from a wide variety of different countries' legislation and take the best pieces of them. In my opinion, I don't see a gold standard anywhere in the world right now.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely. I think, particularly in relation to this conversation, we recorded various acts of political influence and elite capture. These activities are aimed at powerful people in this country, particularly at the lower levels of governance, such as school boards, municipalities and regional governance.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for that important question. First off, we speak about the climate of fear, and that's why we need those anonymous and secure spaces where diaspora can have that trust and have that ability to express their concerns and their observations. It is true that the United Front Work Department and its agents will probably use that very same space to dilute the information that is being received by the Canadian government.

Information & Ethics committee  I'd be happy to. This is where the conversation gets a little complicated. When we talk about foreign interference and influence, it's not necessarily activities that we can outright identify and say, this is a foreign state intervening in my life. Some of the examples I could give are that since last Friday when I appeared on CBC my home Internet has been incredibly slow, and I've been getting more spam calls, more phishing emails and more spam texts.