Exclusive Analysis: 2021 CSIS report mirrors information in "briefing package" for Special Rapporteur
WeChat dossier compiled by MP Erin O'Toole and intelligence in 2021 CSIS report both indicate Trudeau Government to be favoured in propaganda while Conservatives attacked
A December 2021 CSIS report that found Chinese officials planned to “influence” diaspora voters to choose the Liberal Party while convincing them Conservatives would emulate former U.S. President Donald Trump, is echoed by a dossier of evidence submitted for Special Rapporteur David Johnston.
The Bureau obtained a May 2023 “Briefing Package” prepared for Johnston by the office of MP Erin O’Toole — and compared its collected materials to findings in the secret CSIS report.
The CSIS document alleges intelligence collected after the September 2021 election found an unidentified Chinese diplomat had expressed: “the loss by two incumbent Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party of Canada substantiated that immigrants from mainland PRC are beginning to show their strength during elections.”
And CSIS found that Chinese diplomats planned to target the Mainland Diaspora with manipulative messaging in future elections.
“According to the consulate official, ethnic Chinese voters should be influenced/educated about certain key points,” the December 20, 2021 CSIS record says.
CSIS found these points included:
“Ethnic Chinese voters should be told that if the Conservative Party of Canada wins a federal election, the CPC will follow the path of former United States President Donald Trump.”
“The Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the PRC can support.”
The CSIS report was distributed in Ottawa to the Privy Council Office and Global Affairs Canada, and released also to Australian intelligence, the CIA, FBI and MI5.
In a recent speech in Parliament, former Conservative leader O’Toole said he received a threat brief from CSIS that found Beijing targeted him in the 2021 campaign.
The CSIS meeting took place after O’Toole met the Special Rapporteur’s team in May.
According to O’Toole, CSIS said Beijing’s targeting included misinformation against Conservatives via WeChat messages and operations funded and staffed by the Communist Regime’s United Front Work Department.
In his own report on the 2021 election, Johnston did not find that Beijing was behind attacks on O’Toole and his party. Prior to the report’s release, O’Toole suggested Johnston didn’t bother to consider his dossier of WeChat evidence.
Regardless of Johnston’s conclusions, The Bureau’s review of O’Toole’s dossier suggests messages collected from WeChat — a social media app tightly controlled by Beijing’s censors — aligned precisely with the “key points” outlined in CSIS’s December 2021 report.
“The Canadian version of Trump”
One of the WeChat articles contained in the O’Toole Dossier appears to have been posted from Montreal and circulated to accounts in Vancouver.
The September 2021 article says “although the Conservative Party has always been less friendly to China, O'Toole is significantly more radical and tougher than his predecessor, [Andrew] Scheer.”
Citing an alleged example, it says in a 2021 House of Commons vote “the Conservative Party initiated a proposal to claim China's so-called ‘genocide’ against Xinjiang Uyghurs.”
Meanwhile, the WeChat post says, “O'Toole and Trudeau hold opposite attitudes towards China.”
It points to the 2015 federal election.
“When Trudeau was asked about the country he admired the most during the campaign, he said that he admired China the most,” the post claims.