Foreign meddling takes toll on Canadian families, inquiry told
‘Cellphones get confiscated, they get persecuted, interrogated,’ activist says
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.”
In other cases, members of the Russian community might be denied access to consular services, meaning they cannot renew travel documents or ensure they still have valid status as visitors to Canada, he said.
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, cellphones 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.
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. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, head of the foreign interference inquiry, emphasized Wednesday that the need for secrecy about the sensitive subject has not hindered her work to date.
She cautioned, however, that the inquiry must walk a very fine line in balancing confidentiality and the desire for transparency.