Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think the bar is way too low when you say that it has to affect the outcome of the election. Affecting one constituency disenfranchises Canadians and is a big win for China. Interfering in 11 is a major, major aggressive step by China.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's far too low.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't disagree with Mr. Mendicino's idea of a tool box. We need the registry, but we need other things, and I think we need to train our police to be more aware of what's happening. The work that Charles is doing in going into the Chinese language press and hearing what peopl

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I saw those comments, and I must say that I was discouraged when I saw them. There are a couple of things to consider. The most important is that a with lot of what China is doing in its interference, the first victims are in the diaspora community. The Chinese state will say to

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, I did not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  When I was ambassador to China, my focus was on China. When I retired and I wrote a book and travelled across the country and talked to people, I began to see that our China problem wasn't in China. It was now in Canada.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I talked constantly about the importance of security, threats to information and the need for ministers and members of Parliament to guard their documents safely. That was a real focus for me. I met with all of the senior security people in Ottawa when I came back. We talked abou

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I wasn't back in Canada for how elections were run—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —but I think the government was appropriately security conscious when they were in China. That's the only thing I could see—that when they came to China, they were appropriately security conscious, as were other governments. I travelled to China with Mr. Chrétien and with Mr. M

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I had a lot of recommendations. I remember bringing together the economic deputy ministers and the defence and security deputy ministers to talk about the situation we were getting into back in 2010-11, when more than half of Canada saw China as this unlimited opportunity and the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They always got a briefing from me.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The thing that shaped my thinking about this was my experience on the Manley panel when we were deciding whether to extend the mission in Afghanistan. The mission was failing because Foreign Affairs was doing its thing and CIDA was doing its thing and the Canadian Forces were doi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. I think his China policy took a long time getting on the right track. I think he was originally—he said it himself—naive when it came to China, and the country has paid a price for that, but I haven't seen the actions to follow up on that new understanding, that new awarenes

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. I have thought about that too. I must say I've followed all of your proceedings. I listened to our officials, who spoke about the defences we have against interference. They are all very impressive and very capable people, and I know some of them, b

Procedure and House Affairs committee  What would happen in the way it works in Australia is that if you.... The issues they are concerned with are that if you are disbursing money for a foreign entity that is either part of the government or controlled by the government, if you've lobbied for them—and some of that's