MPs vote to launch study into China's 'intimidation campaign' against Michael Chong

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OTTAWA — The House of Commons has unanimously agreed that a committee should strike a study into the "intimidation campaign" allegedly orchestrated by a now-expelled Chinese diplomat against Conservative MP Michael Chong and his family.

Debate on the motion to see the Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) take on this probe took priority in the House over the last few days, after House Speaker Anthony Rota found that Chong's parliamentary privileges were breached as a result of the alleged targeting. The vote was held after question period on Wednesday, and passed with all-party support.

Last week, Chong said that intelligence officials confirmed to him that he and his family had been targeted by Chinese consular official Wei Zhao in retaliation for a motion he moved in the House in February 2021 condemning Beijing's treatment of Uyghur Muslims, as first reported in the Globe and Mail.

"The Chair agrees that the matter raised by the member, that is that a foreign entity tried to intervene in the conduct of our proceedings through a retaliatory scheme targeting him and his family, squarely touches upon the privileges and immunities that underpin our collective ability to carry out our parliamentary duties unimpeded," Rota said in his Monday ruling.

The Speaker finding that the matter amounted to an attempt to interfere in parliamentary proceedings paved the way for Chong to put forward the motion asking that the case of "prima facie contempt concerning the intimidation campaign" be referred to PROC for further scrutiny.

With debate on this issue taking centre stage, numerous MPs have had the opportunity to rise in the House and put on record their own concerns about the threat Chinese-based foreign interference is posing to Canada and what more the federal government should be doing about it.

"I am very comforted by the fact that Parliament has risen to the occasion to take on its role in defending members of the House when the executive branch of government has failed. I hope when the Procedure and House Affairs Committee examines this matter they will look at the totality of evidence that got us to this place," Chong said responding to the Speaker's ruling.

The committee that will now be taking on this work has for nearly six months been studying the issue of foreign election interference in the 2021 and 2019 federal election campaigns, and has heard from a still-growing list of witnesses, from senior federal intelligence officials to national campaign leads from the Liberal and Conservative parties.

While MPs on PROC will have to meet to determine the scope and span of their plans to explore this case, it's expected MPs will try to get to the bottom of which other MPs may have faced similar intimidation attempts, as well as who in government knew what and when.

Chong told the House last week that he was informed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's current national security and intelligence adviser Jody Thomas that information about the Beijing-backed targeting efforts was provided at the time by CSIS to Trudeau's then-national security adviser.

Trudeau has called it "absolutely unacceptable" that Chong faced these threats, but asserted that he only became aware of the allegations once they were reported.

The prime minister has since instructed CSIS to change its processes around informing MPs about any threats to them, regardless of the seriousness or credibility of it, and is looking into why this information apparently didn't reach the desks of the relevant ministers.

"CSIS and our intelligence services receive massive amounts of information every day from sources and signals intelligence around the world highlighting various pieces of information that they have to classify… and they are professionals at determining which information needs to be elevated, which information needs to be acted on," Trudeau told reporters on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.

Seemingly already acting on the prime minister's orders, on Wednesday afternoon, NDP MP Jenny Kwan told CTV News that CSIS contacted her on Tuesday to arrange a "more in depth" briefing with her.

It was not immediately clear the reason, but Kwan said she thinks it is because of the requirement to reach out to any MP "who might be impacted." The meeting will happen once she's back in Ottawa, Kwan said.

CTV News reached out to all three officials who held the national security and intelligence adviser position during 2021 and none recall receiving, seeing, or being briefed on any material regarding threats to MPs while in the role.

China has denied any involvement in foreign interference in Canadian politics. Earlier this week, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the allegations that a Chinese diplomat targeted a Canadian MP as "groundless" and an "out-and-out smear of China."

With files from CTV News' Stephanie Ha and Judy Trinh