Inquiry hears ‘the cost you have to pay’
Iranian, Russian, Uyghur, Sikh, Chinese communities lay out intimidation they say they face
Followed by cars with blacked-out licence plates, or by strangers on motorcycles. Phones hacked, and their email used to send threatening messages. Family and friends threatened, imprisoned or even killed — all in retaliation for their advocacy, in Canada, for human rights.
As an inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections resumed public hearings on Wednesday, advocates from Canada’s Iranian, Russian, Uyghur, Sikh and Chinese communities laid out the intimidation they say they grapple with on a daily basis.
Their stories set the tone for the next three weeks of commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s probe into the extent to which Russia, China and India may have meddled in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, what Canada’s security, bureaucratic and political leadership knew about those allegations, and what the federal government chose to do — or did not choose to do — with that information.
According to those who spoke to the commission Wednesday, what Ottawa has done is very little at all. Several criticized the government for a lack of meaningful policy changes, criminal charges or even acknowledgment of the extent to which acts of intimidation by foreign players is having an impact on them in Canada.
Mehmet Tohti, an advocate for the China’s Uyghur Muslim community, told the commission about being warned by a Foreign Affairs bureaucrat in Montreal that he was being followed home — and that nothing could be done to stop it.
Tohti also said he received a call the week before Parliament was to vote on a motion calling for the resettlement of 10,000 Uyghur and Turkic refugees in Canada. Someone who identified themselves as Chinese state police informed him that his mother and two sisters were dead. The implication? “This was the cost you have to pay if you continue to advocate,” he said.
Grace Dai Wollensak, a representative of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, told the inquiry that her email was hacked and used to blast parliamentarians with rude and offensive messages. She said she was contacted by the RCMP and told to stop; when she told police what had happened and asked them to ferret out who was responsible, she said, no help was offered.
Asked about the impact of foreign interference in his community, Sikh community advocate Jaskaran Sandhu referred to the allegation that the Indian government was connected to the assassination of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“They literally killed a guy,” Sandhu said.
The pressures diaspora groups feel from foreign states means people won’t speak out or up against it, said Yuriy Novodvorskiy, a representative of the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance.
“They see that there are substantial and clear risks to doing so, whereas there’s not a clear safeguard that the Canadian government provides for those who put themselves in risk or risk losing their legal status or have some threats against their family,” Novodvorskiy said.
The commission is now grappling with the tension between protecting the safety of both individuals and Canada’s democratic processes and preserving the secrecy of classified information.
Discussions continue over how much information can be disclosed, and how, when it comes to intelligence gathered about the actions of foreign actors in Canada.
Six interviews were held in secret before the current round of public hearings began. Hogue said Wednesday that she is continuing to push for disclosure, and that summaries of those interviews will be made public.
“Confidentiality imperatives have so far not prevented us from doing the work we have been tasked to do, but they do pose real difficulties as I endeavour to keep the process transparent and open,” she said in her opening remarks.
The commission follows an investigation by former governor general David Johnston into allegations of foreign interference. Johnston referred his findings to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) for it to check his conclusions, which included his determination there was no need for a public inquiry like the one now being led by Hogue.