Diaspora community tells of toll foreign meddling takes on families
Members of diaspora communities told a federal inquiry Wednesday of the ways that authoritarian governments make life extremely difficult for families when members dare question the regimes.
The federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference heard from a panel of representatives of various communities about the human toll meddling can take.
Many Russians who settled in Canada have parents or other relatives who remained behind, said Yuriy Novodvorskiy of the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance.
Russian diplomats in Canada use video surveillance and social media to identify people who engage in protest against Moscow, he said.
“We’ve had cases where Russian activists have been identified here in Canada, and then police initiate some sort of harassment actions against their family back home.”
Human rights activist Hamed Esmaeilion said members of the Iranian community in Canada wear masks, sunglasses and hats at rallies so they cannot be identified.
“There are reports that when they travel to Iran, cell phones get confiscated, they get persecuted, interrogated, their family members in Iran are under pressure,” he said.
“We have had members who met Canadian Parliament members here, and their family members in Iran have been pressured or have been interrogated,” added Esmaeilion, representative of the Association of Families of Flight PS752, a jetliner shot down by Iranian officials shortly after takeoff from Tehran in 2020.
Most of the passengers were bound for Canada, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament in September there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who had been wanted by India for years and was gunned down in June outside the B.C. temple he led.
Canada subsequently expelled an Indian diplomat, and India followed suit by kicking out a Canadian representative.
India is a hostile state, and the Sikh community is facing the brunt of the hostility, said Jaskaran Sandhu, appearing on behalf of the Sikh Coalition.
Mehmet Tohti of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project indicated that Beijing’s repression of community members takes place on a routine basis.
Tohti said Uyghur Canadians have told him of not being able to share news with family back home because communication is blocked. “You cannot send a text to them, you cannot call them and you cannot share photos,” said Tohti, adding some Uyghurs in Canada don’t know if family members are alive or dead.
Ottawa has said there are credible reports of human rights violations against Uyghurs and others in the Xinjiang region, including mass arbitrary detention.
The head of the foreign interference inquiry emphasized Wednesday that the need for secrecy about the sensitive subject has not hindered her work to date.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue cautioned, however, that the inquiry must walk a very fine line in balancing confidentiality and the desire for transparency.
The latest hearings, which run through April 10, will focus on possible interference in the past two general elections.
The inquiry expects to hear from dozens of people, including Trudeau and members of his cabinet and federal election officials.
Hogue said recently she had agreed to a federal request to present some evidence in the absence of other participants and the public.