Western Standard - Investigative journalist Sam Cooper on his years of work with the foreign interference issue

A ruling from a Quebec judge seals the records of two Chinese-Canadian witnesses who claim to have evidence of Beijing s alleged involvement in Canadian politics. What does this mean for the ongoing Hogue inquiry into China s influence in Canada's political system? And what does it say about China's intentions with the Hogue Commission?

00:00:00.000 This breaking story indicates that Commissioner Mary Jose Oge of the Hogue Commission into Foreign

00:00:06.780 Interference just released a ruling today, weeks after the phase of hearing from witnesses has

00:00:14.100 closed, a pretty stunning ruling. She says that she's granting a complete anonymity to two secret

00:00:22.520 protected witnesses because they have either life safety threats or threats of serious

00:00:29.400 repercussions to their lives in Canada. Her ruling says that they have direct evidence

00:00:36.000 regarding how Beijing's United Front foreign influence arm allegedly targets Chinese-Canadian

00:00:43.200 political candidates and community groups. So Corey, as you know, this has been the thrust of

00:00:49.120 my reporting that drove the Hogue inquiry that China uses, nefarious networks inside Canada that 0.56

00:00:57.080 threatened Canadians and attempt to leverage politicians. So really it just, it adds concrete

00:01:03.120 evidence that this judge from Quebec is saying she's so concerned with the credible safety threats

00:01:08.720 that she's going to seal records from these two secret witnesses for 99 years. 0.77

00:01:13.780 Really? That's sealing the records of their identity, but she still wants to hear the testimony, right?

00:01:19.400 She wants to hear their testimony in affidavit form. And I believe there could be in-camera or secret

00:01:26.640 interviews, but done in such a way that the public will receive very sanitized, anonymized summaries.

00:01:36.100 And so for your viewers and listeners that are wondering, could direct witnesses such as these that

00:01:42.500 have evidence of what politicians may have been colluding with Beijing, will they be named? I don't think

00:01:48.560 they'll be named in these documents, but at least it looks to me positive that the commission wants

00:01:53.880 to hear from people with serious evidence and serious safety concerns that need to be protected.

00:01:59.060 Okay. So we probably won't be seeing any specific bombshells getting that tight, but as you said,

00:02:03.780 it's a good trend that they even want to have this in here and they're putting the protections up for

00:02:06.960 these witnesses to come forward. So it is a good indication they're taking this inquiry seriously.

00:02:11.380 This has always been my view that they've got to some good evidence and I believe

00:02:16.480 that they only have the tip of the iceberg, of course, evident to the public. They're holding

00:02:23.960 back so much information. Justin Trudeau and his cabinet have held back documents that they claim

00:02:31.200 are not pointing to nefarious activities. So why are they holding them back? And so I do believe this

00:02:39.220 commission has been valuable. It's proven that something very deeply nefarious is happening.

00:02:44.440 And yet I still think it's minimizing of what the public knows in a big way.

00:02:49.680 So some information we're getting, though, I guess you could say is coming from the

00:02:53.200 China itself with yesterday, what you broke with Beijing endorsed 41 of the races or candidates in

00:03:00.560 them in the 2019 election. I mean, the evidence just keeps mounting about how heavily invested they

00:03:06.480 were in that election. And, you know, they're not hiding it even, it seems.

00:03:11.020 Absolutely, Corey. To briefly explain the power of this document, I, as you know, I have community

00:03:17.980 sources from Asia throughout Canada that are so deeply concerned, much like these witnesses that

00:03:24.760 will be protected by Hogue with how they are threatening Canada and how the penetration of the CCP into

00:03:31.200 Canada's democracy is far beyond what most people understand. So these sources provided to me a Chinese 0.97

00:03:37.740 Communist Party record from an entity that is specifically tasked to influence ethnic Chinese

00:03:45.320 people wherever they live in the world, to surveil them, to mobilize them when China needs them.

00:03:50.880 And this document explains how Beijing was very satisfied that 41 candidates that it viewed,

00:03:58.080 according to expert Charles Burton, it viewed as potentially useful, were nominated in the 2019

00:04:04.740 contest. And it described very succinctly how China was pleased with those results, but wanted to see

00:04:12.660 improvements, you know, more leveraging of these community associations into our politics,

00:04:18.720 and a nugget from this Chinese Communist Party document that I know your viewers will find

00:04:24.660 important is it says, Little Trudeau, or the translation is Trudeau Jr., specifically went into

00:04:32.020 the heart of a Toronto area writings that Beijing views as important to themselves because they feel they

00:04:39.660 would like to control the Chinese populations there. Trudeau went there seeking votes days before the

00:04:45.920 2019 election. So this piece of evidence, I believe, suggests that it tells us why Justin Trudeau was

00:04:53.860 standing in the way of evidence coming out in the inquiry. The document indicates that Trudeau wanted to get

00:05:00.820 votes, and that Beijing knows he wants those votes. Furthermore, it says that Mr. Trudeau appointing the

00:05:09.220 candidate from the area he visited, Minister Merying, was seen as very, you know, very notable by the Chinese

00:05:16.280 Communist Party. But the key figure here is 41 candidates endorsed. It was just incredibly sophisticated,

00:05:23.680 the analysis pointing to how that was better than the past few elections. But China wants to cultivate 0.93

00:05:30.880 and control, unfortunately, more political talent within the diaspora.

Western Standard - November 13, 2024

Investigative journalist Sam Cooper on his years of work with the foreign interference issue

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