Federal government not at fault for Chong controversy: public safety minister | CBC News

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino would not say Monday who within the government was responsible for failing to warn Conservative MP Michael Chong that a Chinese diplomat allegedly was targeting his family for reprisals.

Instead, Mendicino blamed “hostile actors” for the controversy.

“The person or persons who are most responsible for any threats that may have been made against Mr. Chong and his family, are the hostile actors who are engineering them, and that is absolutely unacceptable,” Mendicino said.

“We’re going to continue to put in place … the additional powers and tools that are necessary to hold those hostile actors accountable.”

The Globe and Mail, citing top secret document from 2021, reported last week that the Chinese government was targeting a Canadian MP. An unnamed security source reportedly told The Globe that Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei was allegedly working on efforts to target Chong’s family in China.

Chong has been a vocal critic of the Chinese government and had voted in favour of a House of Commons motion calling Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur minority in China a genocide. Several senior government ministers, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said they first learned about the intelligence regarding Chong through the Globe story.

Last week, Mendicino said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was responsible for failing to brief the prime minister and himself on the situation.

WATCH | Mendicino says government has ‘eyes wide open’ on foreign threats 

Mendicino says government has ‘eyes wide open’ on foreign threats

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says the government will always be ‘up front’ with Canadians on how it is dealing with foreign threats to MPs and their families.

The government briefed Chong last week and has maintained that the intelligence never went beyond CSIS prior to last week. But Trudeau’s national security adviser Jody Thomas said the information was shared with the Privy Council Office (PCO). Trudeau said last week that he’ll compel CSIS to share intelligence about threats to MPs in light of the Chong case.

On Monday, Mendicino did not suggest that his government could have better handled the intelligence on Chong. He said the government is taking the right approach to protecting parliamentarians.

“That isn’t just true of Mr. Chong, that’s true of all 338 MPs who work in the chamber, who’ve got a right to be able to do their job … free of foreign interference,” Mendicino said.

The Conservatives repeatedly have called on the government to expel Zhao, but the government has not committed to doing so.

“The prime minister and [Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie] Joly have made it very clear that all options are on the table when it comes to sanctioning any foreign actor who may have engaged in foreign interference,” Mendicino said.

Mendicino repeatedly said national security law limits what he can say publicly on foreign interference.

“I also think it’s important to highlight that we also have to respect the law,” he said.

“Me and the other members of the government, the prime minister, anyone who works in the national security space has a legal obligation, under the Security of Information Act, to ensure that classified information stays classified, because lives are at stake.”

In an annual report last week, CSIS disclosed that it provided 49 security briefings to federal parliamentarians in 2022.

Minister should ‘get off his butt’: Tory critic

The government has been under opposition pressure to establish a foreign agents’ registry and to call a public inquiry on foreign interference. 

The government has launched a public consultation on a registry and the has left the decision on whether to call a public inquiry up to former governor general David Johnston. The government appointed Johnston as special rapporteur on foreign interference earlier this year.

Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho on Monday called for Mendicino to “get off his butt” and take more aggressive action to combat foreign interference, saying keeping Canadians safe from foreign government’s should be Ottawa’s top priority.

WATCH | Conservative MP calls Mendicino’s reaction to foreign interference a ‘giant fail’

Conservative MP calls Mendicino’s reaction to foreign interference a ‘giant fail’

Conservative MP Raquel Dancho says Mendicino and the Trudeau government need to do more to keep Canadians safe from foreign threats.

“I would give the minister of public safety a giant fail on this, and you saw last week that he wasn’t being transparent at all with what he knew and when he knew,” Dancho said.

“And what exactly has he done about it? What one thing could he point to since he found out that he’s done about it, to keep Canadians safe from foreign inference and abuse, for our members of Parliament and Canadians? Nothing. He’s done nothing about it.”