The Canadian economy grew 0.3% in October, according to the latest GDP figures from Statistics Canada. This increase, largely helped by improvements in the energy and resource sectors, followed a 0.2% increase in September.
Oil and gas extraction, quarrying, and mining saw an increase of 2.4% in October.
Goods producing industries rose 0.9%, a turnaround from four consecutive months of declines.
Manufacturing rose 0.3%, also following four months of decline.
The real estate and rental sector showed a 0.5% increase, its largest since last January despite the fact that it has been on the rise for six months.
Despite the economic bump, Statistics Canada says early indicators suggest the growth may be short-lived.
“Advance information indicates that real GDP decreased 0.1% in November,” the statistics agency said in its analysis. “Decreases in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, transportation and warehousing, and finance and insurance were partially offset by increases in accommodation and food services and real estate and rental and leasing.”
This is a classic case of the progressive left eating its own.
For 30 years Toronto resident Hal Niedzviecki ran a successful offbeat, alternative magazine he’d founded.
It was called Broken Pencil and featured writers, stories and books that may never have seen the light of day otherwise.
In a recent interview, he described it as a mini-magazine which included reviews of small press literature, comics, art and features on “subversive figures doing things out of the norm.”
It evolved into a digital edition with a couple thousand subscribers and 3000 to 5000 stopping by the website per week. Pretty good for a “pretty eccentric” magazine, he says.
Then the atrocities of Oct. 7 hit and the Jewish publisher and author — who always considered himself part of the progressive left — soon found himself a pariah within his own close-knit publishing community.
Niedzviecki became the victim of identity politics and the absolute sheeplike behaviour of the progressive left to target Israel and anyone who supports the Jewish state.
My magazine was destroyed because I support the Jewish people in Canada, Israel, where ever…I am angry and I will speak out. Thanks for this article @bariweiss and @TerryGlavinhttps://t.co/omMMGuUsZy
In the last several months, he was the target of online harassment and — get this — a petition demanding he resign from the very publication he founded!
He decided he could take it no more and with “profound sadness” — as he says in a recent statement — he decided to shut down Broken Pencil as of year’s end.
Niedzviecki said his Jewishness became an issue after he started speaking out post Oct. 7.
”I was very upset by things like the Occupy UofT and people going up to the Jewish communities in Toronto and flying Hamas flags,” he said.
I think we're seeing a congruence btw far right and the not-so-far left when it comes to Jewish people. This makes it seem like hate is everywhere we look. The more space the hate gets, the more it will flourish. Left in particular is giving anti-Semitic tropes lots of space. https://t.co/Zor1wmJ9I8
He said the left thought this was the way it should be and became more and more obsessed with identity politics.
It was all too much for him that people were calling for the eradication of the only country in the world that is Jewish.
He started posting on his private X account after Oct. 7 until it was brought to his attention that people were getting upset about it.
They screenshotted his tweets, he said, and circulated them on Instagram, vocalizing that this was “unacceptable” for someone associated with Broken Pencil.
They soon ramped up their abuse.
Everything he put up social media was accompanied by comments like “Get rid of genocide-denying Hal Niedzviecki.”
As their Zine fall festival approached, people were being told not to participate and advertisers and sponsors were being pressured to withdraw their support.
Soon a petition and an accompanying website appeared demanding that he resign from his own magazine and in order to “get back in the good graces” of the arts community, he should adopt a cultural boycott of Israel and devote an entire issue to Gaza.
The cowardly author or authors remained anonymous and no one spoke to him “directly,” he said.
“It was the equivalent of the masked terrorist sympathizers running around in the streets,” he said. “If you’re really committed to this, show yourself.”
To make matters worse, he knew most of the people who’d signed the petition and many had benefited from being featured in the magazine.
Writers started withdrawing their articles, he said.
Even though he had an issue in the works, he decided to pull the plug.
Niedzviecki said the “literary activists” will “stop at nothing” to get rid of you even if they have to destroy what was essentially their own magazine.
“My feeling is that I can no longer support this community by putting in the time to make this labour of love,” he said.
He feels the arts scene in Canada has been put under “unprecedented demand” for ideological conformity and he has never seen anything like it.
“It is unquestionably an attack on the right of Jewish Canadian artists and writers to support their culture and the only Jewish country in the world and still be in the arts,” he said, sadly.
“They don’t want us there. It’s an unprecedented silencing.”
Nevertheless don’t count him out.
The author of 10 books is now in the midst of writing a memoir about his family post WW2.
And he’s starting a Dubstack focussed on the need for free speech, free expression and content silencing.
Still he conceded it was horrible what happened.
“There was no reason for Broken Pencil to be attacked in this way and forced to shut down,” he said. “The magazine was doing great…so it literally is something that was completely unnecessary.
“It’s a terrible loss for the Canadian arts scene.”
Canadians dreaming of a white Christmas might just get their wish this year – depending on where they live.
According to Weather Network meteorologists Rachel Modestino, Jaclyn Whittal and Doug Gillham, regional weather patterns, snowpack conditions, and upcoming storms will play key roles in determining whether snow blankets your region come December 25.
In Western Canada, the chances for snow are highly variable. On the B.C. Coast, mild Pacific storms are likely to bring rain, leaving the likelihood of a white Christmas quite low in Victoria and much of Vancouver Island.
Vancouver and the B.C. Interior also have a low chance, with prospects hinging on freezing levels that currently suggest limited if any snowfall.
Southern Alberta faces similar challenges, as mild air and snowmelt may reduce the chances of snow.
However, much of the rest of Western Canada is poised for a snowy Christmas, with cold temperatures and an established snowpack creating a high probability of festive snow.
As for Eastern Canada, the chance of snow is up in the air depending on regional conditions. Meteorologists say Southern Ontario holds a medium chance of a white Christmas. Snow is expected over the weekend, but the arrival of a rain-snow mix closer to Christmas could threaten a white Christmas.
Northern Ontario, however, enjoys a much more promising forecast for White Christmas wishes,, with cold weather and an existing snowpack making snow on Christmas Day almost a certainty.
In Quebec, Montreal faces a low chance of snow due to the lack of significant snowpack and minimal snowfall expected in the coming weeks. Conversely, Quebec City is far more likely to experience a white Christmas, with cold temperatures and current snow conditions strongly favouring snowy scenes.
Meanwhile, Atlantic Canada offers mixed prospects, ranging from low to medium. The likelihood of snow will depend on the path of incoming storms and whether precipitation falls as snow or rain, which could diminish the chances of a white Christmas in the region.
Overall, the Weather Network predicts that more Canadians are likely to enjoy a snowy Christmas this year compared to 2023. While some regions remain on uncertain ground, cold weather and favourable snow conditions in many parts of the country suggest a more festive holiday backdrop for 2024.
As the big day approaches, Canadians are advised to keep an eye on local forecasts for updates.
Five Chilean men living in Canada were arrested and charged for their alleged role in a series of residential break-and-enters across the Greater Toronto Area, according to York Regional Police.
Officers launched an investigation earlier this month which ultimately led them to identify the suspects following a residential break-and-enter on Avenue Road and Wilson Avenue in Toronto.
The same suspects subsequently attempted to commit a second break-and-enter near Indian Road and Woodeden Drive in Mississauga before returning to a rental property in the area of Burnhamthorpe Road and Eternity Way in Oakville.
Following their return, one of the suspects was arrested.
“Investigators from the York Regional Police Integrated Property Crime Task Force (IPCTF) have charged five suspects and recovered stolen property as a result of an investigation into a series of residential break and enters across York Region, Peel Region, and the City of Toronto,” reads the YRP release.
“One suspect was followed to a gas station where he was taken into custody. As investigators were getting ready to execute a search warrant, four additional suspects fled the residence and were taken into custody with the assistance of the Halton Regional Police Service.”
Upon executing a search warrant, police found many items of jewellery and other valuables, linking the accused parties to six separate break-and-enters.
Due to the large swath of items recovered, investigators have yet to process the entirety of the evidence.
“A Dropbox folder will be created in the coming weeks and subsequent media releases will be made available to the public to assist investigators in returning stolen property to rightful owners,” reads the release.
According to investigators, the accused entered and remained in Canada for the “purpose of committing criminal offences.”
The men, who are all originally citizens of Chile, have been identified as Michael Brandon Fornells Quezada, 27, Jonathan Alexis Gamboa Carrancio, 36, Claudio Andres Valdes Poblete, 39, Ricardo Javier Parada Neirda, 35, and Daniel Arturo Reyes Miranda, 32.
Their charges include six counts of break-and-enter each, as well as several other related offences.
The five accused men have had their photos made public to alert any possible additional victims who may want to come forward.
Anyone with information is asked to call the York Regional Police Integrated Property Crime Task Force at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 7232, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, or leave an anonymous tip online at www.1800222tips.com.
Small business owners are struggling to adjust to the Trudeau government’s GST holiday.
Businesses have said that they’ve been forced to frantically change prices, retrain staff, and buy new pricing labels in time for the holiday rush, all while incurring additional bookkeeping and accounting expenses.
True North interviewed Beverlee Rasmussen with Systems Business Coach to get an idea of the most frequent problems small business owners have had to face as a result of the tax break.
“I can’t wait to spend Dec. 12,13 and 14 manually reviewing every SKU I sell to temporarily adjust its tax status, only to do it all again on Valentine’s Day. What a nightmare,” said Rasmussen, reading from a recent email she’d received.
In addition to the repricing, the fact that the GST holiday overlaps two fiscal years means it will impact owners’ taxes for 2024 and 2025 if their year-end is Dec. 31.
Rasmussen noted that while the initial feedback she received from small business owners was trepidation due to the hassle of repricing so many items for such a short period, she’s noticed the problem shift towards consumer outrage.
“I was at the mall last night and met with one of our local business owners who’s owned a jewelry store for thirty years and he said ‘clients are angry.’ He’s been yelled at, it’s not good,” said Rasmussen, who also authored the bestselling book Small Business, Big Opportunity.
Consumer anger has been caused by confusion about what exactly qualifies for the tax break. Many people shopping in stores are under the impression that there won’t be GST on whatever they plan to purchase.
“This is going to cost small business owners $1,000 to $1,500 at the very least,” said Rasmussen. “We have 1.9 million small businesses in Canada and 29% of them are affected by the GST, so multiply that out, we’re looking at about a half a billion dollars cost to small business owners. They didn’t ask for this, no one consulted them.”
On top of not being consulted, small business owners now also run the risk of getting their calculations wrong, triggering a GST audit.
“If you look at the fine print,” said Rasmussen, referring to the GST holiday’s framework. “If you order from a restaurant directly yourself, there’s no GST but if you order through a third party provider, there’s GST on the delivery. The complexity of the entire thing is absurd.”
Another flaw in the GST holiday’s vague rules surrounds food and drink, both of which qualify to be tax exempt as long as the food is “considered by the average person to be a food to satisfy hunger” and beverages that are “considered by the average person to be a beverage to satisfy thirst.”
This open-to-interpretation rule has led to many confrontations between consumers and retailers regarding what items should qualify for an exemption.
It’s not just small businesses that are struggling to deal with these changes, giant corporations are as well.
PepsiCo Canada announced that it would continue charging the GST and HST through the holiday, citing complexities around its billing infrastructure and time constraints.
In a statement sent out to retailers, the food and beverage giant said it will “continue charging GST/HST on qualifying products from Dec. 14, 2024 through Feb. 15, 2025.”
“There will be no changes to our current invoicing processes. Customers can continue to claim input tax credits for any GST/HST paid,” it continued.
The tax break will also cost around $2.7 billion to compensate provinces with a harmonized sales tax, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest report.
Rasmussen said that there has been so much confusion around this, that many Canadians are opting to shop via Amazon because they can better understand the pricing and many retailers are also low in stock due to the Canada Post strike.
“It’s not driving sales, it’s just creating confusion. We’ve spent $1.46 billion and added the extra burden to small business owners,” said Rasmussen.
“We could’ve taken that money and actually supported our small business owners and helped them with sustainability and training, as opposed to just using them as a political pawn.”
Treacherous, subversive, sadistic, money-loving, power-hungry child killers. That’s how Alberta teacher James Keegstra described Jews to his students before he was dismissed in 1982. All sane people would agree with Keegstra’s dismissal. The harder question was whether Keegstra should have faced the crushing weight of the criminal law for saying mere words, however ugly.
A jury decided that Keegstra was guilty of the offence of willfully promoting hatred, and he was fined $5,000. Keegstra appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the criminal hate speech provision put in place by the Pierre Trudeau government in 1970 was inconsistent with the Charter guarantee of freedom of expression. Keegstra lost and free speech advocates mourned.
In a 4-3 decision, Chief Justice Brian Dickson and three others found that although hate speech was protected by section 2(b), the wilful promotion of hatred provision was a reasonable limit. Historical evidence such as the Holocaust proved to Dickson that hate speech could cause enough pain, tension, and violence to justify nullifying some people’s free speech rights.
Justice Beverley McLachlin and two others disagreed. McLachlin saw the law as an unreasonable limit. She was concerned that the law did not require proof of any actual harm or incitement to violence before a person could be put behind bars.
McLachlin also thought that it was irrational to believe that criminalizing hateful speech would stop it. Hate speech prosecutions attract media attention so hateful messages that led to charges would reach more ears not fewer, and risked turning hatemongers into martyrs, she reasoned. Pre-Nazi Germany had hate speech laws, she pointed out. We all know how that turned out.
McLachlin’s bigger concern was that “hatred” has many meanings including “active dislike,” “detestation,” “enmity,” and “ill-will” so the provision outlawed a very wide range of speech. Valuable but controversial speech could lead to charges, fines, or imprisonment. One needed to look no further than the confiscation of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, a literary masterpiece that offended some Muslims, by border officials applying a similarly-worded customs provision.
McLachlin also worried that the uncertainty about what was captured by the word hateful would have a “chilling effect” on an even wider range of speech. In other words, people unsure about whether their opinions were captured by the law would be chilled into silence. “The combination of overbreadth and criminalization may well lead people desirous of avoiding even the slightest brush with the criminal law to protect themselves in the best way they can — by confining their expression to non-controversial matters,” she wrote. “Novelists may steer clear of controversial characterizations of ethnic characteristics… Scientists may well think twice before researching and publishing results of research … Given the serious consequences of criminal prosecution, it is not entirely speculative to suppose that even political debate on crucial issues such as immigration, educational language rights, foreign ownership and trade may be tempered,” she added. “These matters go to the heart of the traditional justifications for protecting freedom of expression.”
McLachlin understood that one of the purposes of the guarantee of free expression is to allow for debate of even the most controversial topics because debate is the best way to settle our disagreements including disagreements over who should lead government. Free debate on contentious issues can’t happen if the people currently in government are allowed to outlaw opposing points of view. As McLachlin put it: “Attempts to confine the guarantee of free expression only to content which is judged to possess redeeming value or to accord with the accepted values strike at the very essence of the value of the freedom, reducing the realm of protected discussion to that which is comfortable and compatible with current conceptions. If the guarantee of free expression is to be meaningful, it must protect expression which challenges even the very basic conceptions about our society.”
The point is that much of what we believe today will turn out to be wrong tomorrow. John Lilburne’s case, discussed in Chapter 1, illustrates McLachlin’s point. Lilburne was fined, jailed and pilloried for arguing that the King should have less power, there should be more separation of church and state, and that the vote should be extended to more people. These ideas challenged the basic conceptions of 17th Century British society, but many of us would now agree that Lilburne was correct. Aime Boucher’s case offers another example. Boucher’s view that Quebec was too cozy with the Catholic church certainly did not accord with the values of polite society in the 1940s, but that viewpoint became mainstream within a few decades. Expressing the idea that gay people should have equal rights in Canada was an unacceptable viewpoint 60 years ago. Now, thanks to those who insisted on their free expression rights, gay people have equal rights.
It’s admittedly difficult to see how Keegstra’s vile speech has much value beyond providing evidence that anti-Semitism exists in modern Canada, but as this book illustrates, it’s not hard to see the dangers of allowing governments and judges to decide which topics are up for debate.
Sadly but predictably, the Keegstra decision gave the federal government the confidence to criminalize even more speech. In 2022, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government changed the Criminal Code to prohibit wilfully promoting anti-Semitism by “condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.” The Holocaust is a black mark on human history but expressing a condemnable opinion on a historical event should not lead to prison in a free society.
Even more worryingly, a government appointee has proposed outlawing speech by those “attacking the credibility of Survivors’ truths about missing children, unmarked burials, and cemeteries at Indian Residential Schools as sensationalist.” This proposal to outlaw “residential school denialism” was made a time when no human remains had been unearthed, raising uncomfortable but legitimate questions about whether disturbances found by ground-penetrating radar were really human remains. Attorney General David Lametti said he was open to the idea.
In 2024, the Trudeau government proposed Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, which is perhaps the biggest threat to free expression in Canada in decades. The act would increase possible sentences for advocating genocide from five years to life in prison, would create possible life sentences for other crimes with hate motivation, and would allow someone who fears a future hate speech crime, perhaps a controversial rally, to request that a judge put conditions on the would-be speaker such as putting them in an ankle monitoring bracelet and jailing them if they don’t comply. It’s difficult to imagine a law more likely to chill expression, but as the next chapter will reveal, human rights laws against “discriminatory” speech pose an even greater risk.
Excerpted from Free Speech in Canada: A beginner’s guide from ancient roots to current controversies, written by Christine Van Geyn and Josh Dehaas (available here).
Amid President-elect Trump’s threat to place a 25% tariff on all Canadian products, the Trudeau government seems to be imploding. The threat of tariffs seems to be the least of Trudeau’s concerns right now. Due to Trudeau’s absence, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has stepped up and has begun negotiating with the Americans.
Plus, Isaac covers some of the biggest ways the Alberta government stuck up for the freedom of Albertans.
These stories and more on The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux!
U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul delivered a scathing critique of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former finance minister Chrystia Freeland during a Senate address on Wednesday, just days after Freeland announced her resignation from cabinet.
Paul accused the pair of trampling democratic principles by invoking emergency powers to debank and suppress participants in the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests.
“Emergency powers were not the type of rule our founders anticipated for our country. The other name for emergency rule is ‘martial law’,” said Paul.
“If anyone doubts that emergency powers can be abused, just look to Canada.”
Just the other day @RandPaul tore into Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau in front of the entire U.S. Senate for using emergency powers to debank Canadian citizens and trample peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters. pic.twitter.com/ygjKHcJg2N
Paul referenced the unprecedented use of Canada’s Emergencies Act, which Trudeau invoked Feb. 14, 2022, to crack down on the protest against COVID-19 mandates.
The decision allowed authorities to freeze bank accounts without court orders, seize funds raised through crowdfunding platforms, and cancel insurance for vehicles involved in the demonstrations.
Earlier this year, a Federal Court decision ruled that Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act were unconstitutional, as were several of the measures employed under the act.
Paul warned of the dangers such unchecked executive power poses to civil liberties. He quoted extensively from Gene Healy of the Cato Institute, who characterized Trudeau’s actions as a cautionary tale for democracies worldwide.
“Instead of simply clearing out the protesters and punishing them via conventional legal means, Trudeau invoked emergency powers broad enough to permit the financial ‘un-personing’ of anyone participating in the protests,” Paul said, highlighting the seizure of funds and freezing of personal bank accounts as evidence of overreach.
Paul’s speech also underscored Freeland’s explicit endorsement of the measures at the time. Freeland described the emergency powers as a tool to suspend accounts, freeze assets, and pressure protesters to withdraw
“As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order,” said Freeland at the time.
We are today serving notice: If your truck is being used in these protests, your corporate accounts will be frozen. The insurance on your vehicle will be suspended.”
Paul condemned these actions as an attack on due process and basic rights.
“While native-born Americans may think that emergency powers are to be used to target others, I would venture to guess that the Canadian truckers protesting COVID-era mandates didn’t expect that their government would treat them as foreign adversaries and freeze their accounts. If it can happen in Canada, it can happen in the United States,” said Paul.
Health Canada has released a questionnaire asking Canadians for input on the government’s assisted suicide program. The survey focuses on “advanced requests,” which would allow people who might be incapable of making decisions in the future to give their advanced consent for the “Medical Assistance in Dying” program.
Advanced requests for assisted suicide would be reserved for people who don’t qualify now but have capacity-limiting conditions such as dementia or Alzheimers, which could hinder their ability to consent in the future when they may be eligible.
In most provinces, a person undergoing assisted suicide has to consent immediately before being killed by the state.
The survey is being criticized by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada for many of the questions pre-supposing that participants support advanced requests to the Canadian assisted suicide program.
Dying with Dignity, a pro-assisted suicide group in Canada, told True North in an email that it predicts many Canadians will be in support of the new measures under the program. It pointed to previous polls by Ipsos, which found that 83% of Canadians support advanced assisted suicide requests for those diagnosed with a “grievous and irremediable condition.
Health Minister Mark Holland announced the consultations after Quebec became the first province to implement advanced requests for its assisted suicide program.
“We are optimistic that the national consultation on advance requests for MAID will lead to swift federal legislation following the leadership and initial guidance developed by Quebec,” a spokesperson for Dying with Dignity said. “Advance requests for MAID should be a legal end-of-life option for those diagnosed with a grievous and irremediable medical condition.”
Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada, told True North that the advanced directive legislation is an overreach as provincial governments already have laws regarding the requests.
While healthcare falls under provincial jurisdiction, the survey states that because euthanasia involves taking someone’s life, it falls under the Criminal Code of Canada, making it a federal jurisdiction.
“Euthanasia was originally legalized in Canada under the guise of being limited to mentally competent adults, who are capable of consenting and who freely “choose.” Euthanasia by advanced request undermines these principles,” Schadenberg said in an email to True North.
He argued that advanced requests for assisted suicide do not technically qualify for consent.
“Euthanasia by advance request means that a person, while competent, legally declares their “wish” to be killed, and if the person becomes incompetent, the person would then be killed, even though the person is not capable, at that time, of consenting,” he said. “Once a person becomes incompetent, they are not legally able to change their mind, meaning that some other person will have the right to decide when the person dies, even if that person is happy with life.”
He argued that if the government permits assisted suicide by advanced request, that will open a floodgate of advocates for euthanasia, demanding people who were not able to consent before the law was changed be grandfathered in and killed despite being incapable of consenting.
“Once killing incompetent people is viewed as “compassionate” it will be considered cruel not to kill an incompetent person who is deemed to be suffering because the person didn’t make an advance request,” he said.
Schadenberg wrote a guide for supporters of his organization to still participate in the survey while not giving the government ammunition to say that the program has wide support.
The survey asks about the kinds of guardrails, or lack thereof that Canadians may feel are “important” when offering advanced request assisted suicide.
Questions in the survey included if advanced requests should only be permitted if a family member is aware of the decision, that the person periodically reaffirms their commitment to being euthanized if they are still capable of doing so and if the person should still be euthanized, if they appear happy despite being eligible and incapable.
A man who was one of the leaders of an international non-profit in Canada and other countries has pleaded guilty to acting as an agent on behalf of the People’s Republic of China without informing US authorities.
Chen Jinping, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday. Jinping and an associate were accused of operating a secret Chinese police station in Manhattan, New York to crackdown on dissent abroad
According to U.S. Department of Justice assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen, the accused admitted to “audaciously establishing an undeclared police station” in Manhattan while attempting to conceal his efforts after being contacted by the FBI.
“This illegal police station was not opened in the interest of public safety, but to further the nefarious and repressive aims of the PRC in direct violation of American sovereignty,” said Olsen in a statement.
The covert police station was opened and operated with the help of Chen’s co-defendant, Lu Jianwang in early 2022.
The two were believed to be leaders of an international network posing as a Chinese cultural organization which had a presence in Canada and other countries. According to Parliamentary Committee Notes on Foreign Police Stations in Canada, “they were leaders of a nonprofit association for Fujanese people who, beginning in or around January 2022, conspired to act as agents of the PRC without prior notification to the Attorney General of the United States, as required by law.”
The U.S. affidavit published online also “indicates that photographs on Lu Jianwang’s device depict association presidents from various countries, including Canada.”
The police station occupied the entire floor of the building it was located in and while it provided basic services such as helping Chinese citizens renew their Chinese driver’s licenses, it also was used as an outpost to identify pro-democracy activists residing in the U.S.
“What we know about the Chinese transnational repression police stations in North America—and most of the known locations globally—is that they are operated by Fujian CCP police officials in collaboration with so-called ‘community leaders’ in cities with significant diaspora populations,” investigative journalist and author Sam Cooper told True North,
“Beijing uses these illegal and clandestine outposts on foreign soil to spy on citizens and gather financial intelligence. My research indicates that these networks are also involved in election interference funding, organized crime, and sophisticated attacks on democracy.”
While the clandestine operation was dismantled in the fall of 2022, both Chen and Lu managed to delete all pertinent information involving communications with the Chinese government from their phones before the FBI could seize them
China has been known to operate secretive police outposts throughout North America, including Canada, as well as Europe and many other places where the Chinese diaspora resides.
Human rights organization Safeguard Defenders released a report in early 2023 claiming that the Chinese government had set up more than 100 police stations in over 50 countries as part of a global campaign to “persuade” people to return to China to face charges.
Former public safety minister Marco Mendicino conceded that there could be more Chinese police stations operating in Canada last year, only a month after claiming that they had all been shut down by the RCMP.
“I am confident that the RCMP have taken concrete action to disrupt any foreign interference in relationship to those so-called police stations, and that if new police stations are popping up and so on, that they will continue to take decisive action going forward,” said Mendicino at the time. “Our expectation is that if those activities manifest, if there is foreign interference, that yes, the RCMP will take decisive action as they have in the past.”
Following Mendicino’s comments, the RCMP launched an investigation into Quebec charity Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal after it was discovered that it was hosting an extrajudicial police station acting on behalf of Beijing.
The charity had also received nearly $200,000 in funding from the Trudeau government since 2020.
“In the New York prosecutions, open-source records reveal that Fujian community leaders from Toronto attended the same meetings in China with Chinese police officials operating these illegal stations as one of the co-accused in New York, who has yet to be convicted,” noted Cooper.
“In my expert opinion, the threat posed by these ‘community leaders’ in Canada is even greater than in the United States. This is due to Canada’s larger diaspora populations, which attract more interference assets from Beijing, combined with weaker laws and greater systemic vulnerabilities.”
