CSIS report: some Canadian politicians under foreign influence

[CougarKing]

Some politicians under foreign influence: CSIS
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 | 9:33 PM ET
CBC News

Canada's spy agency suspects cabinet ministers in two provinces are under the control of foreign governments, CBC News has learned.

Several members of B.C. municipal governments are also under suspicion, Richard Fadden, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told CBC News in an exclusive interview.

"We're in fact a bit worried in a couple of provinces that we have an indication that there's some political figures who have developed quite an attachment to foreign countries," Fadden said.

At least five countries are surreptitiously recruiting future political prospects in universities, with China acting the most aggressively, he said. But Middle East countries are also involved.

"A number of countries take the view that if they can develop influence with people relatively early in their careers, they'll follow them through," Fadden said. "Before you know it a country is providing them with money, there's some sort of covert guidance."



Read more: CBC link

 

[daftandbarmy]

Well that explains everything. And for all these years I thought that many of BC's local politicians were aliens from a planet in the Crab nebula...

 

[wannabe SF member]

If a crown minister was indeed found to be working for a foreign power, do you think we'd actually follow through with treason charges?

 

[Michael OLeary]

If a crown minister was indeed found to be working for a foreign power, do you think we'd actually follow through with treason charges?

Firstly, that would depend on whether their actions met the legal definition of treason.

Treason and other Offences against the Queen’s Authority and Person

PART II
OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC ORDER
Treason and other Offences against the Queen’s Authority and Person

High treason

46. (1) Every one commits high treason who, in Canada,

(a) kills or attempts to kill Her Majesty, or does her any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maims or wounds her, or imprisons or restrains her;

(b) levies war against Canada or does any act preparatory thereto; or

(c) assists an enemy at war with Canada, or any armed forces against whom Canadian Forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between Canada and the country whose forces they are.

Treason

(2) Every one commits treason who, in Canada,

(a) uses force or violence for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Canada or a province;

(b) without lawful authority, communicates or makes available to an agent of a state other than Canada, military or scientific information or any sketch, plan, model, article, note or document of a military or scientific character that he knows or ought to know may be used by that state for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or defence of Canada;

(c) conspires with any person to commit high treason or to do anything mentioned in paragraph (a);

(d) forms an intention to do anything that is high treason or that is mentioned in paragraph (a) and manifests that intention by an overt act; or

(e) conspires with any person to do anything mentioned in paragraph (b) or forms an intention to do anything mentioned in paragraph (b) and manifests that intention by an overt act.

 

[Journeyman]

Variations on a theme. Canadian politicians' involvement with groups deemed terrorists (even by Canada) is not new, although statistically, it seems to be more of a Liberal penchant.

For example, I'd posted two links previously regarding the Liberals and the Tamil Tigers (you know, those nice folks who effectively invented suicide bombing).
To avoid repetition and bandwidth wastage, see:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/86583/post-858418.html#msg858418
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/89668/post-882243.html#msg882243

 

[GK .Dundas]

If a crown minister was indeed found to be working for a foreign power, do you think we'd actually follow through with treason charges?

Nope! According to a lawyer friend of mine there is  a concern that  that the act under which you'd be charged under  might not stand up to a Charter of Rights Challenge .Then again there's always the Not Withstanding clause

 

[1feral1]

Interesting topic.

I was thinking should there be any bad apples within governments as CSIS thinks, would these be Canadians who were landed immigrants, who have since recieved their citizenship, and ho were born and raised in another country, with family back in their homelands (possibly threatened), or sympathetic to his homeland's current political situation, and still loyal to his/her place of birth. Say for example the MP is elected to his position from by his own ethinic 'citizens', like from places in Canada's larger cities wher such ethnic ghettos exist?

Don't get me wrong, but I can't realy see, say for example a 7th or 8th generation Canadian born person, say again from NW European ancestry doing such a thing, as there is no real reason. Money perhaps?

OWDU

 

[TimBit]

What is also interesting is
1. The timing of this release, G8 and all.
2. The very fact that it was authorized in the first place... clearly not an independant decision.

I wonder what gain the political masters saw in this announcement.

 

[OldSolduer]

This is not new. One only has to look at Pierre Elliot Trudeau. He held Fidel Castro in great esteem.

All through out the Cold War, cabinet ministers and civil servants in the UK were compromised with monotonous regularity.

 

[Staff Weenie]

Hmmmmm - doesn't Trudeau's son have a thing for Castro as well? Why do they think that he's some kindly old man?

 

[The Bread Guy]

What is also interesting is
1. The timing of this release, G8 and all.
2. The very fact that it was authorized in the first place... clearly not an independant decision.

I wonder what gain the political masters saw in this announcement.

Other items adding to the timing mix:
1b.  "Chinese president's Canada visit to boost ties":  "Chinese President Hu Jintao will start his Canada visit on Wednesday, leaving open opportunities for unprecedented cooperation between the two countries, according to local China watchers.  Prior to the G20 summit in Toronto this weekend, Hu's second official state visit to Canada will feature discussions on the country's abundant natural resources, the finalization of the Approved Destination Status (ADS), Asia-Pacific trade, climate change issues and cultural exchanges.  "They will also talk about relationship building," said Richard Lee who currently sits in the British Columbia legislature as the Parliamentary Secretary for the Asia-Pacific Initiative...."
1c.  "PM must talk human rights with China: coalition"

I was wondering about point 2 as well - this scale of interview, with this level and kind of official, must need very high levels of approval to happen.

 

[Danjanou]

Hmmmmm - doesn't Trudeau's son have a thing for Castro as well? Why do they think that he's some kindly old man?

You mean aside from the calling him "Uncle Fidel" thing? 8)

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Interesting topic.

I was thinking should there be any bad apples within governments as CSIS thinks, would these be Canadians who were landed immigrants, who have since recieved their citizenship, and ho were born and raised in another country, with family back in their homelands (possibly threatened), or sympathetic to his homeland's current political situation, and still loyal to his/her place of birth. Say for example the MP is elected to his position from by his own ethinic 'citizens', like from places in Canada's larger cities wher such ethnic ghettos exist?

Don't get me wrong, but I can't realy see, say for example a 7th or 8th generation Canadian born person, say again from NW European ancestry doing such a thing, as there is no real reason. Money perhaps?

OWDU

You can't see it because you're so hopelessly pathetically racist only a corn-fed Bible thumping WASP will meet your expectations..................

 

[OldSolduer]

Just about anyone can be compromised.  The main reasons?

Cash - good old fashioned greed

Sex - Cabinet ministers and others that can't resist

Revenge - "I'll show them"

Ideology - perhaps the most dangerous of all.

I don't think race nor ethnicity has anything to do with it. Soviet citizens and American citizens often fed the other side info during the Cold War.

Spycatcher is a good read. It was written by a Deputy Director of MI5 I beleive. There was a ring of spies within high levels of the British Intelligence services, and all were born in Britain.

 

[TimBit]

Yeah, the oft-used acronym is MICE - money, ideology, conscience, ego. Also OWDU, THink about the german americans and/or canadians during WWII. Some of them had been here a LONG TIME... yet that didn't stop SOME of them from helping out nazi Germany. Even though they were of european descent...

 

[1feral1]

You can't see it because you're so hopelessly pathetically racist only a corn-fed Bible thumping WASP will meet your expectations..................

Sure Bruce  :

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from the Canadian Press:

Canada's senior spy is backtracking on remarks that he's working to oust politicians under control of foreign governments.

In a statement, Richard Fadden said foreign interference is common in many countries around the world and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has been investigating such threats for decades.

Fadden, who is the director of CSIS, had said in a television interview that he had informed the Privy Council about provincial cabinet ministers and municipal politicians who'd grown too close to unnamed foreign governments.

But he took back those remarks Wednesday afternoon, in a statement sent out in the aftermath of an earthquake in Ottawa.

Fadden said he has "not apprised the Privy Council Office of the cases ... mentioned in the interview on CBC."

And he added that "At this point, CSIS has not deemed the cases to be of sufficient concern to bring them to the attention of provincial authorities."

(....)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas said the PMO had "no knowledge of these matters."

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says the spy agency owes Canadians more information.

McGuinty says the province hasn't been contacted so, from Ontario's perspective, "no news is good news."

He says the CSIS chief needs to elaborate and provide more details so any concerns can be addressed.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's office said late Tuesday he would not be available for comment on Fadden's allegations.

McGuinty dismissed suggestions the allegations amounted to racial profiling after Fadden hinted the country involved in recruiting cabinet ministers was China.

 

[OldSolduer]

McGuinty's remark is moronic.

Foreign agents don't always contact people of their own race.

 

[mellian]

McGuinty's remark is moronic.

Foreign agents don't always contact people of their own race.

Re-read what he said, he dismissed such claims, not the one making them.

 

[OldSolduer]

Re-read what he said, he dismissed such claims, not the one making them.

My apologies.

For once he made sense.