National Defence committee  First I would say that having the Canadian navy participating in these operations in the Taiwan Strait, in the region, is tremendous because you're sending a message to China that this isn't just a sign of American rivalry. A lot of serious countries are concerned and willing to

National Defence committee  On understanding China, it goes deeper even than diplomacy. If you look at any newspaper in the last 10 years, you'll see a glowing story about some new technology in China or some incredible app that Chinese consumers use. Maybe somewhere else, in the political section, you'll r

National Defence committee  In my view, it was an error. I have long argued that there needs to be some level of communication between the Canadian Forces and the People's Liberation Army simply to understand their doctrine, their tactics and their thinking. You can't separate yourself. There came a time, t

National Defence committee  There are three things principally that China has in its Canada policy. One that we're seeing is that we're one of the most important allies of the United States. Anything they can do to weaken that alliance and split us off is valuable. Two, we're a source of technology. They do

National Defence committee  I'm quite sure that they are disconnected, but I would say they have been disconnected for a long time. There were a lot of reasons for that. One is the failure to think strategically and to take foreign policy seriously within the public service and government. We do that beca

National Defence committee  We have slipped, even within the Five Eyes. I think we have come to be seen as the fourth most aggressive member of the Five Eyes when it comes to combatting Chinese interference. New Zealand is basically not doing anything. We're at the back of the pack. We see that in terms of

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, and thank you for this opportunity to speak to the committee. Since retiring a decade ago, I've spent a lot of time reflecting on two issues from my professional life. One is the challenge of managing our steadily evolving relationship with China. The other,

Government Operations committee  That's why I said you have to weigh our obligations to the WTO against our obligations to the national security of Canada. That's the first point. The second point is that you're going to find that a lot of other countries are in the same boat, and we could be spurring some crea

Government Operations committee  We most definitely are, and we've been slower to recognize it but we're facing the same techniques: elite capture, penetration of universities, diaspora communities, media that's happening in Australia.

Government Operations committee  I've written that one thing we should copy is the Australian foreign influence measures that look at people who are acting on behalf of other states or state-controlled actors and make it an offence not to disclose who is paying you to say things, who is paying you to do things i

Government Operations committee  It's still early days with the Australian one but we're seeing that it has some bite and some effect and, as Professor Burton has mentioned, it certainly got the attention of the Chinese. What I think is important is it makes explicit what should be explicit anyway, that if you'

Government Operations committee  Yes. In the security sector, we should not allow Chinese companies, for example, to compete, and I wouldn't let Russian companies compete. We need to think seriously about where the risk is coming from. I think Professor Burton said earlier that this country-agnostic view is unre

Government Operations committee  It could do so by cross-referencing the technology related. Also, any technology coming from a country like China that could make us vulnerable and that could harvest information about Canadians or about our foreign guests would be off the list. That's certainly not impossible.

Government Operations committee  That's why I talked about creating new structures. We might have to look at this in a new way, but we've had two years of daily focus on the risks posed by China, and we haven't done it yet. I think we should get down to figuring out just what that would look like. The result wou

Government Operations committee  It has to come clearly and unequivocally from the top, and that is the Prime Minister. It's not even just the foreign ministry, because the fact that we have this.... If you listen to the testimony about the procurement, you'll see that even Global Affairs doesn't have the voice