Majed El Shafie: Canadians Must Act to Stand Up To China
By Majed El Shafie, President & Founder of One Free World International
The Chinese government is engaged in a sophisticated campaign to interfere in Canadian elections. The Chinese government is operating illegal police stations in Toronto and Vancouver. These are facts, but Justin Trudeau’s government refuses to take real action to protect Canada’s interests and the integrity of our democracy. What can the average Canadian do now to get action?
What happens when your house is on fire and you call 911? The fire department comes and puts it out. There are also building codes to reduce the risk of a fire to begin with. In Ottawa, alarms have been ringing about China’s interference in our country for months and Justin Trudeau’s response is to simply unplug the phone on the other side where the alarm is ringing.
The Globe and Mail reported that CSIS briefed our five-eyes allies (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) on China’s sophisticated campaign to interfere in Canadian elections and buy favour with Canadian elected officials. Global News further reported with details of 1 of the 11 MPs alleged to have been directly supported by the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to corrupt our democracy.
What was Justin Trudeau’s response to these now public reports? To complain a whistleblower is trying to ring the alarm even louder and calling for an investigation into the leak.
Back in November, OFWI and coalition partners started a campaign to pressure the government to take swift action to shut down China’s illegal police stations operating here. Czechia, Ireland, and the Netherlands acted fast and shut down illegal police stations operating in their countries.
These illegal Chinese police stations are being used to intimidate Canadians in Canada. Especially Canadians of Hans Chinese, Uyghur, and Tibetan cultural origin. The CCP’s dissidents who fled to Canada for a life of freedom instead still feel the influence and pressure of Beijing police state here in our country.
The OFWI coalition wrote the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Public Safety on behalf of the thousands of Canadians who signed the petition. A senior bureaucrat replied and spent two pages writing to say nothing. The Federal government will not say what they are doing or what they have done. There was no transparency, no accountability, no action. In an era where trust in our institutions is deteriorating, this just makes it worse.
It may take a lot more for the average Canadian to lose sleep over something that does not immediately impact their daily lives. However the Chinese Communist Party will not rest until they get their way. The Chinese government’s corrupting of our discourse and democracy demands a response worthy of our Canadian values.
Thanks to a brave whistleblower, we now know the Chinese Communist Party interfered in Canada’s federal election. The Chinese government did so with the explicit intent of supporting the Prime Minister’s Liberal Party by giving illegal donations and creating disinfo campaigns against the Prime Minister’s political opponents. This is not a partisan political debate. This is an attack on Canada.
Canadians may feel helpless, but they have the power to do something about it. Even in China, millions of people taking the streets, carrying white sheets of paper, forced Xi Jingping to give the Chinese people some of their freedoms back.
Our democratic values and tools are the greatest power if we have the courage to use them. Canadians have the power to do something about it. Call your Member of Parliament. Write to the Prime Minister. Write to your local paper. Call in to your local radio station. Share this and other media stories reporting on this assault of democracy on social media. Justin Trudeau has demonstrated he does not want to take action. Canadians should speak up and help inspire him to action.