Prime Minister Mark Carney spent the week avoiding questions about the Canada-China memorandum of understanding (MOU) on policing. Against the backdrop of China’s foreign minister Wang Yi’s Ottawa visit, the confidentiality of the joint deal between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security was brought into sharp focus. Upon initial questioning, Carney nonchalantly walked away from reporters, and in a subsequent exchange he shut down questioning with a fabrication and curt retort that his government intends on keeping the terms of the MOU confidential with the country’s new strategic partner.
The police MOU in question is the joint agreement on policing agreed to when Carney was in Beijing in January. It was part of a larger package of new agreements – from policing to AI development, from financial networking to world governance – all heralded as a “new era” between Canada and China and a foundational step towards a New World Order. At the time of the signing of the law enforcement MOU, former senior RCMP officer Garry Clement was vocal in stating the deal is a counterintelligence danger that risks the nation’s sovereignty. Clement warned in an op-ed in The Bureau, “If Canada does not set firm, public, and enforceable limits, cooperation will drift toward outcomes we neither intend nor control” and “The long-term cost—measured in compromised methods, intimidated communities, and eroded sovereignty—could be far higher.”
Today, Canadians still do not know the details of the strategic partnership with its multiple MOUs signed between Carney and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) President Xi Jinping. Regarding the police MOU, what is known is that the RCMP force now views Chinese police like “law enforcement partners” in Canada, as described by Senior Deputy Commissioner Bryan Larkin before a Senate parliamentary committee. In a written response to MPs’ inquiries, the RCMP would not divulge whether their policing agreement excludes the “transfer of personal information of Canadians” to the Chinese police agency. The written response stated, “The agreement outlines specific forms of mutual collaboration which includes the exchange of information, investigative assistance, sharing best practices specific to technical expertise and training, and coordinating with other domestic law enforcement agencies where necessary.” In another statement to media, the RCMP suggests that Canadian officials are not at liberty to release the confidential agreement, “The RCMP will not unilaterally make public or share the contents of a MOU with a third party without the concurrence of the other party.”
When MPs and media could not get substantive answers from the RCMP, they turned to Carney to provide Canadians with the information. Yet, in a social media clip that has gone viral, Carney would not respond to the reporter’s question, simply walking away without a word. Later during a media Q&A session, he was asked a direct question by CBC News reporter Judy Trinh, “You’ve said previously that there are guardrails in place in Canada against foreign interference yet your government has not released publicly the RCMP MOU signed with Chinese police. Why is that?” to which Carney responded, in part, “We don’t make a habit of releasing security documents with other governments for reasons of operational security, and that is standard practice for this government previous governments as well. So I don’t see a reason to change that in this circumstance… that’s our policy and that’s what we will stay to.”
Carney’s assertion that it is a standard procedure for the government to adhere to a non-disclosure agreement with its MOUs is not fact, as has been exposed by investigative journalist Andy Lee, who reported on the 2021 MOU public document between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security. Lee also reported that a RCMP document from 2023 reveals that the Canadian police force did not intend to renew the agreement upon expiration. By mid-week parliamentarians and media were not accepting Carney and his non-answers, and Senator Leo Housakos summed the frustration up succinctly, “When an agreement involves a dictatorship accused of operating illegal police stations on Canadian soil, Canadians are owed MORE transparency.”
The prime minister’s antics were being played out, remarkably as a number of troubling reports about Beijing’s influence in Canada were being released. Though there was plenty to report, news of Canada-China relations was scarce in the mainstream news – mostly milquetoast coverage of regurgitated government talking points. The national press corps headlined a government backgrounder about China’s foreign minister visiting Ottawa “for the first time in 10 years.” Canadians were told Wang Yi and foreign minister Anita Anand will discuss the Canada-China Strategic Partnership. Department of Global Affairs Canada presented quotable quotes concerning “enrich bilateral linkages” and “China remains a critical commercial market for Canadian businesses.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is quoted as stating the meetings are of great significance for “consolidating the positive momentum in the turnaround of bilateral relations.” Beyond those laudatory statements, no details are shared.
In contrast to this superficial coverage of the Carney government-China relations, here are four CCP-related news items from this week found in independent media that Canada’s government subsidized media chose not to headline. On the very day that the prime minister refused to divulge the details of the police MOU, there was a news conference on Parliament Hill organized by The Montreal Institute for Global Security (MIGS). The Canadian think tank issued a report, “Guarding the G7: Countering Beijing’s Interference Operations,” that called on G7 countries to take coordinated action to counter Beijing’s foreign interference. The news conference reported on China’s recurring influence tactics including “cultivating elites, leveraging Beijing-linked groups, transnational repression, and media partnerships that push pro-China content with little scrutiny.”
The MIGS report concludes: “A clear pattern emerges across G7 countries: foreign interference linked to the CCP’s United Front system is not episodic or isolated, but systemic, adaptive, and embedded within the normal functioning of open societies…. The scale and sophistication of this ecosystem are significant. Through its United Front system, China has cultivated a network of more than 2,000 organizations operating across democratic societies.” The report also underlined activity in Canada: “The Canadian case therefore provides a wide array of foreign interference activities across diaspora engagement and mobilization, elite co-optation, election interference, academic penetration, media ecosystems, and transnational repression.”
New York Times best-selling author Jan Jekielek was in Toronto Wednesday to raise awareness on the CCP’s practice of harvesting organs. Jekielek brought forth the research from his book, “Killed to Order: China’s Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America’s Biggest Adversary.” He posted on X: “Around the world, patients who desperately need a life-saving organ transplant are being told: If you go to China, they can do it quickly. Instead of languishing on wait lists for months or even years, you can get a new liver or kidney within weeks—or even days. These organs don’t come from willing donors, but are instead forcibly taken from innocent religious prisoners like the Falun Gong and the Uyghurs. They have been tissue-typed and blood-typed in prisons and camps throughout China—and then are killed to order. This is what happens when extreme, state-driven utilitarian logic overrides basic medical ethics.”
In other news, disturbing revelations surfaced about American civil rights leader Laura Harth, whose organization Safeguard Defenders exposed before Congress the nefarious activities of China’s Ministry of Public Security in America. Safeguard Defenders publicized the work of Beijing’s “overseas police service centers” and now Harth is caught up in an AI-generated pornography deepfake smear campaign to silence her. In an interview in The Bureau, Harth was asked about the Carney government’s non-transparent Sino strategic partnership, and she replied, “As someone who works with its victims on the daily, as someone whose colleagues have been relentlessly targeted for years, as someone who herself has been a persistent target, it’s honestly just staggering to see democracies walk into the same trap time and again.” She made the observation regarding Canada-China’s police MOU: “Here’s a very basic question everyone should ask themselves: who made the request for an MOU with the RCMP? And subsequently: who stands to gain from this agreement? If the answer is — as I suspect — the PRC (CCP) on both counts, why on earth should Canadians assent to it?”” Harth took a similar view in a Globe and Mail editorial she penned this week claiming, “Police cooperation with China comes without guardrails.” Harth reasoned, for the sake of transparency, the Carney government should release the MOU details to Parliament.
Conservative MP Michael Chong met with Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te in defiance of the CCP’s recent warning to Canada not to send parliamentarians to the region. Chong explained his trip to Taiwan to CBC News, “The goal was twofold. First, it was to stand in solidarity with a democracy that’s on the front lines of threats coming from an authoritarian state. The second purpose was to clearly state that MPs do not take direction from a foreign government as to where they travel internationally.” While a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy denounced the MP’s trip stating the MP had crossed a “red line,” the prime minister and Liberal cabinet ministers would not comment directly on Chong. In an iPolitics editorial, former international trade minister Ed Fast suggests that the Carney Liberals’ silence betrays Canadians’ national interests. Fast writes what should be a given: “Canada should never allow itself to be bullied by a bellicose ‘wolf warrior’ state like China. Beijing’s threats and tantrums over parliamentary visits to Taiwan betray a regime deeply hostile to the free exchange of ideas and the right of elected representatives to engage with fellow democrats. Chong’s visit asserts what should be obvious: Canadian MPs answer to Canadians, not the Chinese Communist Party.”
Carney must not walk away from this national sovereignty issue; Canadians deserve answers on the joint policing MOU – along with details of the other confidential agreements Carney signed with the CCP.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
