Procedure and House Affairs committee  One of the strategies of foreign interference by the Chinese is to infiltrate a community and influence or even bully the community into acting or working with a certain perspective. With the avenue of social media, a great exploitation has been started to simply launch negative campaigns against certain individuals, which will eventually influence the community.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Currently, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Depending on the operational situation, sometimes we might decide not to inform the target or the person who is targeted right away in order to understand a bit more about the network and what is at play. Eventually, it is our responsibility to protect Canadian citizens because ultimately our boss is not the government; it is the Canadian people.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Absolutely. It is one of the less regulated processes to a certain extent. It is left to every political party to decide who will be eligible to vote and who will be eligible to volunteer or work as political staff. You have here a pool of possible interference at play.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Worse than that, I've seen candidates going to the consulate and asking for their help.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They were going to the state actors and asking for their help to be elected, and they got elected.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, but just to be clear, usually we do not target Canadians. We target foreign agents. If they are in contact with Canadians, then the Canadians might become part of it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much. The report was not, in fact, shelved. We were ordered to shred it, along with all the working notes we had put together. To my knowledge, only one copy exists today, and it's with the RCMP. There are many examples of dubious decisions made over the years. One was mentioned by Mr.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can't speak on behalf of Mr. Rosenberg. However, what I've seen is that in most instances involving any of the political parties, even if they are not officially in power, people are always motivated by personal or partisan interests.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is sending a very bad message. The Five Eyes are currently asking themselves some serious questions, further to a litany of poor or overly late decisions, even when the evidence was blatant: the Huawei decision, the decision to expel a diplomat, the decision to address the issue of foreign interference.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was a very serious breach. Unfortunately, Mr. Harper's response at the time was that it was a personal matter and that there was no need to get involved. He allowed the person at issue to keep his job.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The journalist left owing to a personal squabble. I recall that it was her husband who had discovered the relationship between her and the parliamentary secretary, and he told a Toronto newspaper about it and sent along an exchange of emails between his wife and the parliamentary secretary.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, he kept his job.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe so. The example you gave was just one among dozens. This kind of negligence was occurring under whichever political party was in power at the time. Canada has been losing all kinds of credibility with its international allies. As Mr. German said, there's a world of difference between saying and doing, and that's where Canada is losing credibility.