(OTTAWA) The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has closed all Chinese police stations that were installed without fanfare in recent years in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said.
Summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating foreign interference in federal elections, Minister Mendicino noted that police have shut down the activities of these secret organizations, which are said to be engaged in acts of intimidation against members of the Chinese diaspora in Canada. Relations with the Chinese Communist Party regime.
Despite pressing questions from Conservative members of the panel, the minister declined to say whether any charges had been laid in connection with the case and whether the Canadian government had expelled Chinese diplomats stationed in Canada in retaliation.
“The RCMP has taken decisive action to close these so-called police stations,” said Minister Mendicino, who has been hounded on the issue by elected conservatives.
It was subsequently confirmed by the minister’s office Pres Two Chinese police stations in Quebec that recently appeared on the RCMP’s radar have also been closed.
The two companies identified by the RCMP would have established their bases in the South Shore’s Sino-Québec hub, Brossard, and Greater Montreal’s Chinese Family Service.
Neither of these institutions is on foreign soil affiliated with police forces in China on a list of Chinese “police stations” published by the Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders by translating official Chinese publications. After the RCMP released its report, it previously confirmed five companies in Ontario and Western Canada.
During a House of Commons committee meeting, the Conservative Party criticized Minister Mendicino for not expelling any Chinese diplomats following the discovery of these Chinese police stations.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper noted that in the US, the FBI last week charged two people with conspiring to act as agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in connection with a police station located in Manhattan’s Chinatown. This is the first time that criminal proceedings have been initiated against such a police station.
The charges against Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, stem from an FBI and US attorney’s office investigation into the Chinatown outpost in Brooklyn.
“So no arrests, no charges. The FBI has charged, but in Canada these illegal police stations are not called illegal. You don’t expel diplomats. […] What is stopping you from taking action? Minister Mendicino accused Beijing of showing “tolerance”, and Mr. Cooper started.
His fellow superintendent Luc Bertolt continued in similar fashion. According to him, after several revelations about Beijing’s meddling during the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, donations to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and attempts to bring the communist regime closer, if no Chinese diplomat has ever been expelled. The presence of Chinese police stations on Canadian soil shows that China is exerting undue influence over the Trudeau government.
“If the government is not under the influence of the Beijing regime, how come no diplomats were expelled or anyone arrested after these illegal Chinese police stations were closed? “, Deputy Bertolt noted.
At the end of this tight questioning, Minister Mendicino finally answered that he did not rule out any option. “We will always keep all options on the table and we will take the necessary action in consultation with my other colleagues in government,” he said.
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