Juno News - December 15, 2023


Is Justin Trudeau compromised by the CCP？ ｜ Investigative journalist Sam Cooper


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

163.04134

Word Count

6,621

Sentence Count

331

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

20


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Three years ago, if you told Canadians that agents of the Chinese Communist Party were
00:00:10.720 operating police stations on Canadian soil, were cultivating a network of politicians and
00:00:15.640 staffers in the last two federal elections, were intimidating the family of a former cabinet
00:00:20.440 minister in this country, were helping to fund the political career of the Prime Minister of
00:00:24.840 this country and were buying off journalists, you would be laughed at as some sort of sinophobic
00:00:30.340 conspiracy theorist. But all of that is true, and we know it to be true. In fact, the infiltration of
00:00:36.440 Canada's democracy by the Chinese Communist Party is so bad that CSIS agents and other security
00:00:41.980 officials had to take their concerns to the press, to journalists, and become whistleblowers because
00:00:48.000 Justin Trudeau and his office have so far done nothing to stop this from happening. These agents
00:00:54.140 have risked their entire careers and decades behind bars in order to warn Canadians about
00:00:59.400 just how serious a threat this foreign interference really is. And it's also not just the Chinese
00:01:05.580 Communist Party. The Indian government, as we now know as well, is also heavily involved in foreign
00:01:10.780 interference operations inside our country. So is the Iranian government, and of course, so are the
00:01:15.020 Russians. No self-respecting nation would allow itself to be put upon in such a reckless and dangerous
00:01:20.680 way. But that is exactly what is happening in Canada. We are no longer seen as a trustworthy
00:01:26.320 ally. Canada is excluded from new intelligence alliances, and we are laughed out of the room.
00:01:32.880 Not to mention that the lives of millions of proud Canadians from diaspora populations have now been
00:01:37.720 put at risk. Our next guest is one of Canada's leading investigative journalists whose work has been
00:01:43.060 at the very front of uncovering this web of foreign interference operations inside our country.
00:01:48.120 Drop a like in the video. Help us up with subscribing to the True North YouTube channel. And the common
00:01:52.060 question for the episode is this. Do you think that the liberal government has been compromised
00:01:57.660 by the CCP? Let me know in the comments, and let's get into it.
00:02:01.320 So joining us now on the show is investigative journalist and best-selling author Sam Cooper.
00:02:06.340 I should also say that Cooper is the founder of the investigative journalism outlet on Substack,
00:02:11.840 the Bureau. You can find a link to that in the description of this video. Cooper's reporting has been at the
00:02:16.760 very front of uncovering this web of election interference operations in our country, which
00:02:21.760 has imperiled the democracy of Canada and has challenged our national security. It involves
00:02:27.360 politicians all the way up to the federal government. So Sam, thank you so much for coming
00:02:32.060 on the show.
00:02:33.120 Thanks for having me, Harrison.
00:02:34.240 So your reporting really blew up into the national conscience really in November of 2022 when sources
00:02:40.740 came to you alleging, not alleging actually, that they had information that the Toronto Consulate,
00:02:46.920 the Chinese Toronto Consulate, was funding and cultivating a network of 11 federal candidates in
00:02:53.360 the 2019 election, including staffers. Since then, of course, this has become a major political scandal
00:02:59.260 causing major headaches for the Trudeau government. Now, there's been a lot of reporting since that
00:03:04.400 first major story from you and from other journalists detailing just how deep this interference
00:03:09.560 operation really goes. And we'll get into the details, but first, why don't you just summarize what
00:03:14.980 we know to be going on in this country, what these election interference operations are looking like,
00:03:19.740 and who's involved?
00:03:21.260 Right. Yeah. So it is incredibly complex stuff. What my continuing investigations have found that
00:03:27.960 it's not just the 2019 and 2021 federal election that were targeted with this network of preferred
00:03:35.780 candidates and staffers, that some of them are wittingly allegedly attached to the Consulate and
00:03:42.420 intelligence influence, some of them unwittingly. But the key here is that my continuing reporting has
00:03:48.780 showed that this is not just focused on the federal level or a Toronto Consulate. It's across the country
00:03:55.380 and from the top to the bottom of our democracy, municipal, provincial, federal, even leadership
00:04:02.220 contests. But to quickly summarize, yes, you're correct. My reporting in November kicked off this
00:04:08.360 run of reporting that the Globe and Mail later joined. And the allegations are serious. As you said,
00:04:14.360 11 candidates in the Toronto area only allegedly were supported clandestinely by a network that included
00:04:22.040 clandestine funding. And the channeling allegedly between the Toronto Consulate undercover officials
00:04:29.560 and these preferred candidates and their networks and their campaigns included a community group that
00:04:37.060 I have further reported is under investigation in Chinese police station activity. So that's the 20,
00:04:45.180 sorry, the 2019 election allegations. Of course, a number of politicians were named. There are lawsuits going on.
00:04:52.020 But we'll be able to hear from politicians in the inquiry, whether they were wittingly or unwittingly
00:04:58.440 tied up in what I have reported is Xi Jinping's United Front influence networks that are rampant in
00:05:06.520 Canada. But to just summarize this answer, 2021, I and the Globe and Mail have also reported that this
00:05:13.720 election interference stemming from consulates in Canada extends to the point where China wants to see
00:05:22.000 a liberal government elected as the Globe and Mail was first to report. I have reported as well.
00:05:28.620 There's no question here. CSIS has documents that says the liberal party is favored. And yet China is
00:05:35.440 attempting to support other candidates and other parties, especially the conservatives, because China
00:05:40.940 wants to see, as the Globe and Mail first reported, a minority government led by the liberals so that China can
00:05:48.260 simply fulfill its objectives and secretly influence our politicians to take stances that would favor China
00:05:57.540 and be to the detriment of Canada's policy. So I'll end by saying those are the main allegations that this
00:06:04.960 Foreign Interference Commission is mandated to look into. But I have done many reports since this summer and
00:06:11.960 since launching the Bureau on a continued collection of CSIS documentation that shows that it is across the
00:06:20.020 country and from top to bottom of our political system. And the three main parties are very targeted. Again, it's the
00:06:26.520 Liberals mostly, but it's anyone that matters politically in Canada, including leadership contests, is what I've reported
00:06:34.000 based on documents that no one will be able to refute.
00:06:36.520 So we'll get into the leadership contest stuff, because I think that's really important. And of course, also, the EDA
00:06:42.680 politics, this this local EDA politics, which clearly can be manipulated to get the best outcome for hostile countries. But
00:06:51.160 you've touched on the inquiry here. And I want to get into that a little bit, because originally, the federal government
00:06:56.240 didn't want to have an inquiry, they were pushing that off, trying to avoid any real investigation into what's going on.
00:07:02.800 Trudeau even even appointed David Johnston as Special Rapporteur, who also kind of discredited your reporting in the global news I found in his report.
00:07:11.920 But this federal inquiry into election interference, it's limited in scope, right? This is not going to be this all encompassing
00:07:19.700 investigation into what's really going on. That's something I've noticed that you've been touching on, that this is not really what is going to solve this problem.
00:07:27.080 That's right. I think that, you know, that a good thrust of reporting in Canada right now, not just from me, is that the mandate again of this inquiry, only looking into the 2019 and 2021 elections, and whether there was an interference, that's much too narrow.
00:07:45.080 We can go a lot further into why it's much too narrow, but we've already seen in reporting that the Liberal Party will have access to all the evidence, which will not include their cabinet privileged communications, which would be the type of documents that would tell the Canadian public, what are the key questions here?
00:08:04.840 Did Justin Trudeau and the chief staffers in his office know? Were they warned by CSIS's director that some of their candidates could be under the influence of foreign powers, that probably the allegations could include some of your fundraisers are directly involved with the Chinese government?
00:08:24.180 And then, as I've said, there will be no contesting that Justin Trudeau has been China's favorite candidate. And so does he turn a blind eye to these CSIS allegations because it's benefiting his party?
00:08:36.840 And furthermore, as I've reported, does his government fail to implement reforms to foreign interference laws recommended by a bipartisan intelligence review panel since 2019? Do they not do those actions? Again, because perhaps it could make their major donors in China, or perhaps even Iran, other countries angry.
00:09:00.060 So we could talk for a long time on why some people are questioning the mandate already. Another issue is who has intervener status? Can people that face serious allegations of being threat actors for China see all the evidence and, you know, learn what they don't know? Could they even, you know, through their lawyers, inform China of some of this evidence?
00:09:25.120 So we could talk for a long time, but I think it's suffice to say there are problems that this inquiry already, some people I think are getting the sense that it just looks like David Johnston, part two, and I won't go into the many ways where Mr. Johnson's report was deeply flawed and missed all the evidence.
00:09:46.420 All we need to do is read a sub stack from Aaron O'Toole, the former conservative leader, who evidence now proves was attacked by China. The day before the Johnston report came out, Mr. O'Toole reported on his sub stack. This is a whitewash. And he was right. It gets a lot worse, I believe. But I think what I'm trying to say is Canadians are right to say, okay, we're going to hear more here, but it already looks like we won't hear enough in these upcoming hearings.
00:10:12.720 So let's just touch a little bit more into this Trudeau Foundation stuff, because it's really, it's remarkable. It involves Justin Trudeau, it involves David Johnston, you know, and even Morris Rosenberg, who cleared the federal government of any serious election tampering or any concerns in his report.
00:10:31.900 Morris Rosenberg was a CEO of the Trudeau Foundation. David Johnston was also involved with the Trudeau Foundation. And yet the Trudeau government's first response was to hire David Johnston to be the special rapporteur. It's so obviously, it's so obviously, there's such a clear conflict of interest.
00:10:51.180 And furthermore, there's been reporting since that Trudeau was briefed on these threats that, that in fact, he didn't know that the Canadian security CSIS and Canadian security establishment were concerned about these networks. So it looks, it looks very, it looks very dirty in a way. It looks as though this goes all the way up to Justin Trudeau. Talk a little bit about the Trudeau Foundation aspect of this, because I think that has also become a little bit lost since it first really came into the news cycle.
00:11:19.840 David Johnston Sure. You know, for your listeners and viewers, we could talk a lot about how United Front influence operations work, how China has a Ministry of State Security officers in all its consulates in Canada, who use proxy agents to get donations into Canadian leaders. Again, this isn't just the Liberal Party, they're targeting lots of influential people in Canada. But the Globe and Mail was first on a report that I can confirm.
00:11:49.200 David Johnston I had the same intelligence, it was only a single source, I didn't report it, it was a single source, the Globe and Mail reported a single source, I can confirm, I believe that source is very credible. And so I'll confirm that I believe that the Globe and Mail was accurate, that the Chinese consulate was captured on a CSIS wiretap, asking a very wealthy, influential business person, I'm not sure how he made his wealth.
00:12:16.200 David Johnston Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs
00:12:18.880 Garcastle Allgams Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs Heitman Onrggs
00:12:22.680 Justin Trudeau Family Foundation, right? This is around 2012-2013. What this is indicating,
00:12:30.060 according to CSIS's wiretaps and beliefs, is that they believe China wanted Justin Trudeau
00:12:36.800 elected. They wanted Justin Trudeau to be the Liberal Party leader. Justin Trudeau was their
00:12:42.060 candidate, okay? And something in the nature of a couple hundred thousand, maybe more, maybe less.
00:12:48.900 There's, you know, questions around how much money actually that was promised flowed to the
00:12:54.720 foundation, goes again through this process. The consulate says, proxy person, let's just call them
00:13:01.160 proxy person with unclear sources of income. Can you donate to our prime minister through this
00:13:07.080 foundation? And it happened. This is what CSIS heard on a wiretap. This is the evidence they have,
00:13:13.400 rather intelligence. CSIS can't prosecute. This sounds very dirty, doesn't it?
00:13:18.640 Canada doesn't have the laws in place to say, well, well, this could look like a bribe from
00:13:23.500 the Chinese Communist Party. But let's take, let's step back from a sec, a second. The Trudeau
00:13:28.740 Foundation is very clearly one of these sort of very connected to the Liberal Party entities that
00:13:36.580 may give a little of the appearance of distance. So you can have a David Johnston or a Morris Rosenberg
00:13:43.120 come in and do a report and look like it's arm's length, but it's not. It's connected to Trudeau.
00:13:48.180 It's connected to the Liberal Party. As we saw, there's all kinds of warm family skiing relationships
00:13:54.220 going on.
00:13:55.220 I've known the governor general since I was a kid, from visiting him and his daughters when he was
00:14:01.460 principal of McGill, to spending time on the ice or the slopes at their family home, the Laurentians.
00:14:07.780 The Trudeau Foundation, I'm telling your listeners, Harrison, is a direct target of Chinese influence
00:14:14.920 operations. I have so much more evidence on these kinds of questions, but I believe it was proven
00:14:20.600 in the Globe and Mail breaking that story, which was followed up very well by reporters in Montreal.
00:14:26.460 And I want to say I have the same intelligence information that Wiretap established. China wanted
00:14:34.480 Justin Trudeau to be their guy, and they wanted what's called the white gloves in Chinese culture
00:14:40.840 to flow that donation.
00:14:43.760 So obviously there are people involved in the security side of this country, at CSIS and RCMP,
00:14:51.740 who are trying to do something about this, who want this country to be safe from these hostile
00:14:56.400 nations. And they're having to go to you. They're having to go to journalists because they're not
00:15:01.440 they're not getting anywhere with politicians. That, to me, speaks volumes about the fact that
00:15:06.700 at the political level, nobody is really that interested in trying to stop this from happening.
00:15:12.720 I believe that's proven. It's a it's a circumstantial case. It's probably a slam dunk case in evidence
00:15:19.300 and documents somewhere. Again, CSIS can't bring those documents out and do any prosecutions.
00:15:24.320 But what I would like your listeners to lean on most heavily, my reporting for the Bureau on the
00:15:31.200 NSICOP panel, this is the bipartisan intelligence review body created by Justin Trudeau to report to
00:15:39.640 Justin Trudeau on important intelligence and give him recommendations. They gave him a report in 2019
00:15:46.980 saying, look, Australia has a foreign actor influence transparency scheme. They have other laws.
00:15:54.620 They've been targeted in the same deep way as New Zealand has by China's political influence
00:16:01.220 operations. They overcame in Australia, quote, willful blindness from a very elite political academic
00:16:09.580 business leaders. And they put in these new laws. This is right in the report.
00:16:14.460 And Justin Trudeau was told, please take action in 2019. His government has not done so. As I've
00:16:22.400 reported, his government was also warned about threat activity from India. His government was
00:16:27.600 warned about these illegal Chinese Communist Party repatriation operations. Since 2015, Mr. Trudeau has
00:16:36.460 been warned. And yet he hasn't put these laws that were recommended to him in place that will protect
00:16:42.880 our diaspora communities from being surveilled and harassed from foreign intelligence and crime
00:16:48.760 networks. So I believe that circumstantial case is proving why would the prime minister and his office,
00:16:56.340 so we're talking about people like Gerald Butts, Katie Telford, Ben Chin, and others, why would they
00:17:03.320 stand in the way of reforms that are being recommended? And Harrison, I'm going to tell you,
00:17:10.420 I understand people like Marco Menditino, who's not a cabinet minister anymore, would be supportive of these
00:17:16.540 reforms. And yet Trudeau and his office have not done them. The only real answers that I can point to are that
00:17:24.560 they don't want to, I'll just use a slang word, piss off their donors who are going to be case one on the foreign
00:17:34.420 agent registry. If it goes through, they're not going to want to step in the way of people from China, but also the
00:17:41.300 Iranian guards that want to keep those donations going. I believe that's the case here.
00:17:46.920 It's incredible. It seems as though, of course, that it's just, it's, it's working for the liberals.
00:17:52.340 They're in power. So why would they want to end the party? Now, you took a major step in your reporting
00:17:58.200 to name two politicians, Han Dong, formerly of the Liberal Party, and Vincent Ke, an Ontario
00:18:05.880 provincial legislator of the, formerly of the PC party. Both those politicians have been removed from
00:18:12.760 their caucus. They are now sitting as independents. And yet I want to, I want to show the audience
00:18:18.440 a clip of you testifying in front of parliamentarians, liberal parliamentarians who discredit your
00:18:26.940 reporting and try to challenge you on the fact that you have, that you, you, you're, you're not
00:18:32.460 being accurate. Now I know journalism. I know that an outlet like global news wouldn't run a story
00:18:37.380 like that. If there, if your sources weren't absolutely on the money, if you guys weren't certain
00:18:42.320 by reporting, I'll throw to that clip now. So the audience can see how the Liberal MPs discredited your
00:18:48.180 reporting at a, at a testimony. On March 22nd, uh, you published an article with the headline,
00:18:53.820 Liberal MP Han Dong secretly advised Chinese diplomat in 2021 to delay freeing the two Michaels.
00:19:02.180 Do you stand by this headline? I don't write the headlines, but I stand by the story.
00:19:08.600 How could you, with any degree of journalistic integrity, publish an article that is sheerly
00:19:15.240 just based on unfounded allegations? The article is based on, uh, going back to my opening statement
00:19:23.880 for the honourable member, and I'll reiterate it again and again. The story stands. I will
00:19:29.300 not speak to identification of sources. I will not speak to editorial processes. And I want
00:19:36.220 the member to remember. Mr. Cooper. I will not speak to legal processes surrounding this story.
00:19:41.280 The National Security and Intelligence Advisor, the Right Honourable David Johnson, the Director
00:19:45.940 of CSIS, Deputy Ministers, and Ministers all confirm that the headline that you published
00:19:52.420 as a part of that story was demonstrably false. So did you knowingly mislead Canadians?
00:20:01.060 Um, we're definitely here today because of a story that you published and that's what brings
00:20:06.000 us here. So I really wanted to make it more clear. Um, do you think you possibly could have
00:20:10.980 gotten it wrong? No, the story stands and, uh, the legal, uh, okay. Thank you.
00:20:17.620 So it's remarkable. You've taken this step to name these, these politicians and, and the liberal
00:20:24.560 MPs are trying to discredit your reporting there. I guess they're trying to save their own political
00:20:28.400 skin, but that's a major step to name two politicians. I guess my question for you is
00:20:33.620 how did these people end up into legislatures and into the house of commons? Did, did, were they,
00:20:40.620 was the federal government not warned? Was Doug Ford's government not warned in advance that these
00:20:45.220 people were, uh, potentially dangerous? Well, Harrison, uh, because there are three current legal
00:20:51.840 actions involving, you know, my reporting, I need to be very careful here, but what I can tell you is
00:20:57.520 that you're correct. You understand, uh, investigative reporting at a high level,
00:21:02.700 especially on sensitive stories, uh, is vetted for many reasons. One of the reasons could be that,
00:21:09.800 uh, you know, people that come forward are facing, as I and the Globe and Mail have repeatedly reported,
00:21:17.240 uh, potential, uh, prosecutions under the Security of Information Act. The, the people, these very, uh,
00:21:25.660 what I would call, uh, you know, patriotic professionals, very learned people, uh, do not
00:21:32.720 lightly come to reporters and show them documents that could put, uh, people in the government in,
00:21:39.520 in, in a lot of hot water with the law. They take that step with a lot of consideration.
00:21:45.180 And as reporters, I'm sure the Globe and Mail too, have a lot of considerations that the reporting is
00:21:50.860 accurate and it's in the public interest of the Canadian people. So since you played that clip,
00:21:56.440 I will comment that, uh, I, just as I did in that hearing, I said, I have very strict, uh, limitations
00:22:03.200 on what I can say because of, uh, ongoing legal, uh, cases. But in response to, you know, my treatment
00:22:11.820 in that hearing, I do think I was very, I was asked to testify that day, uh, based on my knowledge
00:22:18.900 of attacks on Canadian politicians from a foreign power. I answered the call of duty, prepared to
00:22:26.380 answer that evidence. And some MPs from the party that is apparently most implicated wanted to try to,
00:22:33.520 uh, discredit, as you say, they failed. But, uh, I came away from that with a very, um, let's just say,
00:22:41.720 uh, I was, uh, I want to be very careful. Let me put it to you this way. I'm going to, I've told others
00:22:49.400 and now I'm going to tell you several days later, national security officers from the RCMP knocked on
00:22:55.100 my door and said they had a legal duty to warn a Canadian reporter that has been reporting on Chinese
00:23:03.100 interference issues that they could face, uh, some, some risk consequences. I'm going to leave it at that.
00:23:09.260 So I answered my call of duty to give evidence. I was attacked, uh, I will say unethically by some
00:23:15.940 MPs. I'll say it to their faces. I'll say it in law. And then I was warned by the RCMP that, um,
00:23:23.240 well, you must be reporting something pretty, uh, powerful and accurate because some people
00:23:27.540 want bad things to happen to you. That's about as much as I'll say now, I think at a later point,
00:23:33.040 I'll be able to speak more on names and, uh, you know, what may, what kind of threats I may face.
00:23:39.000 Of course. And we hope you do. Absolutely. Now let's just zoom out a little bit. So
00:23:43.440 I find that the, this AUKUS, Australia, UK, United States agreement is, says a lot about where our
00:23:52.280 allies and what our allies think of Canada and think of our security as a country to work with.
00:23:57.560 This is a major, major story that is really damaging Canada's reputation. How do you think
00:24:04.240 this is, this is, this has impacted Canada's reputation among our allies, what they think
00:24:08.780 of Canada and what they think of, of where we're at here, our, our security, how we can, uh, how we
00:24:15.200 can keep intelligence safe. Uh, because I find that, that, that development between Australia, UK,
00:24:21.680 and the United States is a real sign that they don't trust Canada as a, as a reliable ally at
00:24:27.300 this moment. What do you say to that? I think there, uh, I do believe, uh, cases such as the
00:24:33.400 Cameron Ortis trial, which I've reported on. Uh, no one can argue that, uh, the Canadian intelligence,
00:24:41.600 law enforcement, the RCMP have been irreparably harmed by, uh, cases and concerns surrounding
00:24:48.900 Ortis, which could go a lot deeper than what has come out in his trial. I do believe that,
00:24:54.240 uh, on some level, you know, you just look at Canada's military spending and you can see that
00:24:59.420 our capacity has been severely downgraded. You can look at Mr. Trudeau's response of not putting
00:25:06.280 in place the responsible foreign interference laws that his own bipartisan panel has recommended to him.
00:25:12.460 You can look at the reporting on myself and Bob Fyfe and Steven Chase that points to, uh, willful
00:25:18.940 blindness, dereliction of duty, allegations that still have yet to be tested in court or in hearings,
00:25:25.200 if those hearings really want to get to the bottom of them. I do think the picture, as I have heard
00:25:31.340 from people inside government, is that, yes, we're not trusted anymore. We're seen as a lightweight.
00:25:37.040 Let's just put it simply, uh, Australia and Canada could be very similar nations. Canada is the G7
00:25:44.080 nation, yet Australia is the trusted ally of the powers of the G7. Uh, Germany is starting to step
00:25:51.520 up and pull some heavy weight internationally and take some hard, but I believe right decisions,
00:25:56.560 you know, uh, let's just, you know, not to get off topic, looking at what's happening in the Middle East.
00:26:01.760 Canada isn't, uh, you know, across the board, you could, a lot of people politically could disagree
00:26:07.920 with me, but what I'm hearing from inside is Canada is not trusted. It doesn't have the capacity
00:26:14.160 legally and, uh, uh, law enforcement wise to, um, deter these very serious threats. And so our allies
00:26:21.600 are now holding back. We're not being invited to the, uh, to the adult table. And I'll add here,
00:26:27.840 you know, some of these, uh, so-called, uh, intelligence academic experts in Ottawa,
00:26:33.040 you know, would try to say, uh, about Oscars that, oh no, it was just because we don't want
00:26:38.000 nuclear subs. That's why we're not invited. No, these are like prime minister office friendly
00:26:43.200 academics that, that are just making excuses. I believe for, for this government that is seen,
00:26:49.040 uh, more and more as an afterthought at best. Right. We were talking about our allies here and
00:26:55.600 obviously Canada is not the only country that is the target of Chinese interference of other
00:27:00.160 hostile nations that are trying to interfere. Obviously other countries are involved in this
00:27:04.400 too. United States being one and Australia, as you point out, what is, what is the United States done
00:27:09.680 to protect their intelligence, their infrastructure, uh, and to prevent these, this, this infiltration
00:27:16.320 and this interference? Well, the United States, I, I more and more, I read documentation from,
00:27:24.160 uh, the U S department of justice or cases coming out of the Eastern district of New York attorney's
00:27:29.440 office, the FBI, the DEA. U S has powerful, uh, law enforcement intelligence institutions.
00:27:37.120 And again, they have, uh, the foreign actor registration act. And it's very, it's very simple.
00:27:43.840 All the cases I read about illegal Chinese, uh, you know, transnational repression, illegal Chinese
00:27:50.080 police stations, uh, operations using, you know, uh, let's just say nefarious proxies and Chinese
00:27:57.760 intelligence to target artists, to target politicians, to target dissidents in the United
00:28:03.840 States. We're learning about those for two reasons. The U S has a foreign agent registration act
00:28:09.760 to, uh, prosecute the proxies that China uses two or three steps of insulation between their powerful
00:28:16.480 intelligence, uh, officials in China and Hong Kong that sometimes travel to the U S sometimes not,
00:28:23.040 but in all cases, they've got the distance of using these proxies in diaspora. The U S can, uh, convict
00:28:30.240 those proxies with their laws and their powerful law enforcement agencies. And they're looking at, uh,
00:28:36.800 uh, you know, uh, increasing the power of their foreign agent law. And yet in Canada, you know, uh,
00:28:43.600 we're not, so the U S faces, I believe the same threat work threat networks, uh, from, from India,
00:28:51.120 from China, from Iran, from Russia, and yet much less powerful. These networks are less powerful in
00:28:58.160 the United States because they know uncle Sam has the hammer. They know Canada is a, you know, pure
00:29:04.560 weakness. And so they're set up more strongly in Canada to run their operations. And, uh, as we've
00:29:10.720 said, Australia responded and has upped their laws. So it's going on all across the world,
00:29:16.320 but Canada is a hotspot because we're weak. Interesting. Interesting. Very interesting.
00:29:21.600 Cause I noticed, I noticed you had a report in the Bureau about, about how Canada is seen by these
00:29:27.440 hostile nations as the hub for all of this bad activity, because it's so easy for these countries
00:29:33.040 to get involved. And it's not just through political interference, right? It's also, um, criminal
00:29:38.560 gang activity that also benefits these countries. And you've done a lot of reporting on, on Chinese
00:29:44.880 mafia, um, involvement in Canada and how that interacts with the United Front. Maybe you can
00:29:50.320 just briefly talk about how not just the political interference side of things, but also pushing
00:29:56.080 forward, uh, criminal activity also will benefit the Chinese government and how, and how they benefit by,
00:30:02.960 by involving, not just again, like I said, not just the politics, but criminal gang activity.
00:30:08.640 Yeah. You know, it's such a huge, complex story. I've probably got a second book in me, but very
00:30:13.760 simply the Chinese government doesn't want its, uh, uh, PLA or ministry of state security officers
00:30:22.240 always in the United States or Canada with hands-on, you know, beating up dissidents. They want organized
00:30:28.880 crime and dirty business persons or, you know, anyone they'll use anyone in society. They'll use former
00:30:35.920 police officers. It's not racial, ethnic or anything. They will use anyone they can get their hands on.
00:30:41.600 But most specifically in my research at a high and powerful level, they use the Chinese mafia
00:30:48.000 to, uh, run police stations in Vancouver and Toronto. Uh, they use the Chinese mafia to run casinos where
00:30:55.920 corruption can occur. They use mafias to, uh, transmit, uh, election interference funding and donations.
00:31:02.880 It's simply about proxies. And so anyone can be a proxy, but when you're using high level
00:31:08.640 fentanyl traffickers, money launders, casino operators as your proxies, this is why I argue
00:31:15.840 that Canadians need to know a lot more about the dirty, dirty specific details of who they're using
00:31:21.360 and why. And I'll add, it's very interesting that a United States indictment that was just unsealed in,
00:31:28.480 uh, late November showed that the Indian government in its brazen, uh, assassination efforts against,
00:31:35.600 uh, you know, Sikh separatists, which by the way, aren't often very good people themselves,
00:31:41.360 are also involved in, you know, uh, political activity, organized crime activity. But the Indian
00:31:46.960 government is using organized crime to target those people that it fears are terrorists. And I'm
00:31:52.800 arguing, I'm writing now again and again, that it's the same when you're looking at, uh, the Chinese
00:31:58.560 threat networks, the Iranian guard networks, Russia, these kinds of countries that, uh, you know, we
00:32:04.720 increasingly, Harrison, face the risks of wars spreading across borders. Hostile state activity
00:32:10.960 is happening, uh, inside our countries, but Canada isn't responding for two reasons. We lack the power
00:32:17.840 to combat these, uh, criminal networks that are used as proxies. And again, we lack those foreign
00:32:23.200 interference and proxy agent laws. You touched on India and I want to get into that. You recently
00:32:28.320 published a report in the Bureau about how the Indian government was involved in promoting a conservative
00:32:34.080 leadership candidate in the leadership race and undermining another candidate. I'm sure there's more
00:32:38.720 details into that, but touch on that a little bit about, about their involvement in particular
00:32:43.440 in the conservative leadership race. I know my audience would be interested to hear more about this.
00:32:48.480 Yes. So I've been reporting, I believe four or five reports now on a document called a CSIS
00:32:54.800 intelligence assessment that I reviewed very recent, October, 2022. And, uh, again, I'll stress the
00:33:02.080 point that this document shows that, uh, the Chinese interference, also Indian state interference
00:33:09.120 is so broad, it goes from municipal to provincial to federal, and it targets leadership contests.
00:33:16.640 Uh, what's important about the document is the diaspora. We have great, uh, loyal, uh, productive
00:33:24.560 diasporas in Canada that came to Canada for the benefits of our freedom and, you know, uh, our distance from hostile,
00:33:32.400 uh, uh, political forces. And they are now being, you know, leveraged and targeted in many cases by China,
00:33:40.400 most prominently in India. So jumping, you know, to the focus of your question, yes, this document shows
00:33:46.240 that a federal political party in 2022, uh, an Indian government proxy agent said, according to the
00:33:54.240 thesis evidence that the party's leadership race was targeted. As you said, one candidate, we know
00:34:00.400 that it's a male, we don't know the name was told, you can't come to these diaspora events that are
00:34:05.920 connected to the Indian consulate. In other words, they're trying to gatekeep between the voters
00:34:11.840 and, uh, the candidates and put the Indian government in the way. And then in the, in the other case,
00:34:16.960 an unidentified candidate memberships are purchased to support them. And, uh, as we both know, both the
00:34:24.240 federal conservatives and greens had leadership races, but all of the evidence I read in this thesis
00:34:29.440 case study fit the conservative party. So it's demonstrating that, uh, one leadership con leaders
00:34:36.800 are targeted. It's not just elections. And again, let's remember, it's only the 2019
00:34:41.680 and 2021 federal election that they're looking at in this interference commission. But as I've said,
00:34:48.080 this case of India's influence allegedly with the conservative party is one, uh, another point,
00:34:54.000 a case points to two individuals from China that are said to control a federal electoral district
00:35:00.080 association. And so this shows that, you know, that they, they were trying to allegedly, uh, get
00:35:06.800 candidates approved by trading support for some unidentified leader. And the other point is these
00:35:13.440 individuals were already active at provincial politics and federal too. So the CSIS case study
00:35:19.360 says, uh, this case demonstrates how this influence starts, you know, at, in the writing level and it just
00:35:25.520 goes all the way through Canadian politics, top to bottom. Incredible. Incredible details of just how,
00:35:32.800 how serious this problem really is. You know, just as we wrap up, I want to ask you what, what's on
00:35:38.400 your radar right now. I know you're really focusing in on, as you say, on uncovering what the Indian
00:35:43.440 government has been up to in, in, in election interference, but is there anything else that
00:35:47.760 you're working on that, uh, you can let our audience know to, to look out for?
00:35:51.200 Sure. Uh, I'm working on a primary source investigation that came from a, uh, a Chinese
00:35:58.080 Canadian who was involved in private zoom meetings in 2021 that involved the Justin Trudeau appointed
00:36:06.080 Senator, Yuan Pao Wu. Uh, some of your listeners will know Mr. Wu has been, you know, very, uh, let's
00:36:13.440 just say interesting in his political advocacy. His very first speech in Senate was taking the position of
00:36:20.400 China on the South China sea. Harrison, as you know, uh, right now, when we look at events in Taiwan,
00:36:27.440 uh, it's very important to understand that the military activity in that area of the world on
00:36:32.160 the seas is of huge interest to China, Taiwan, the United States, uh, Australia, United Kingdom. Again,
00:36:39.360 Canada is not at the table, but we, we still have a good military that would like to be involved.
00:36:43.840 But look, I'm looking at Senator Wu's, uh, activity openly and behind closed doors. Remember,
00:36:51.040 it's reported that he will be an intervener in this commission. So I, I, I will give you the tip
00:36:56.880 and your listeners, uh, look out for some, uh, secret tapes obtained by your, uh, yours truly and
00:37:03.760 what they reveal about whether, uh, Mr. Wu could have any, you know, undeclared interests.
00:37:08.800 Wow. Unbelievable. Well, the last question I have for you, Sam is about just independent
00:37:14.160 journalism in general. You left global news. You were a, uh, uh, you were involved in, in the,
00:37:19.280 in the mainstream media for many years, but you've launched the bureau and independent
00:37:23.040 investigative outlet. I want to ask you why, why did you feel the need to do that? And what was
00:37:27.760 the, what was the reason to try and to launch your own outlet?
00:37:30.480 Uh, the primary reason was that, uh, my book willful blindness in 2021 was so successful. Uh,
00:37:39.360 it was really, uh, uh, a life, uh, the, the, the reporting experience and rewarding reporting
00:37:47.360 experience of my lifetime. It, it debuted number one, Amazon in Canada. It's been critically acclaimed.
00:37:53.520 It's being read, uh, in Washington, DC over in London, any number of, uh, very, you know,
00:38:00.000 credible think tanks and academics around the world, high level, former U S justice officials
00:38:05.920 cite the book. And yet Canadians love a lot of them loved reading it. You know, it was, uh,
00:38:11.600 very detailed, but some very interesting and juicy stuff too. So my thought was if I can reach that
00:38:18.080 level of influence outside Canada with that type of reporting, let me do it on a daily and weekly
00:38:24.320 basis on, uh, my own website, which is platformed on sub stack now, but I have my own website if need
00:38:30.880 be, uh, it's already designed and look, Harrison, I've never been more productive. I've never been more
00:38:37.120 impactful than I, uh, than I have on this website. It's still building and yet it's being cited by
00:38:43.840 people like global mail columnist Andrew coin sometimes. So it, I do believe that, you know,
00:38:49.120 in, in some ways, uh, you could say that I took a step down from, you know, the front pages of
00:38:54.160 Canadian media in another way, you can say that I'm still doing, uh, the same work, but I believe in a
00:39:00.480 more, uh, detailed, uh, just as rigorous way. And, uh, it's, it's, uh, it's at the cutting edge of what
00:39:08.160 matters in Canada. And I want to report more broadly as you know, on Taiwan, Germany, what's happening in the
00:39:13.680 United States. Incredible. I think I speak for my audience when I say that we're glad you've made
00:39:18.640 that decision to go into the independent media space. It's really important for this country and
00:39:24.160 for getting your work out there. Uh, just quickly before we let you go, Sam, where can my audience
00:39:28.640 find your work? Uh, where can they find you on social media? So first and foremost, you can, uh, just
00:39:34.960 google www.thebureau.news or thebureau.news. I've got my own website address. That'll take you to my
00:39:43.520 uh, investigative platform. And so, uh, let's get more traffic going to there. Tell, tell your
00:39:50.000 friends and family. I do believe this, uh, this website is making a difference already. And you
00:39:54.960 can find me on Twitter at scooper cooper, where I also, uh, you know, I do some, a little bit of
00:40:01.520 independent commentary that also points towards the bureau website. Amazing. And you can find the link
00:40:07.200 to the bureau.news in the description of this video, Sam, thank you so much for coming on.
00:40:12.400 All right, everyone. That's going to do it for us this week on the show. Reminder to let me know
00:40:16.160 your answer to the comment question. Is the liberal government compromised by the CCP?
00:40:22.560 Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner and this is ratio.