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A Canadian mountie waits outside the Senate before the Throne Speech in Ottawa.
Mountie charged in China probe
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police busted one of their own last week, arresting former officer William Majcher in Vancouver, where he was charged with violating the Security of Information Act — Canada’s official secrets law — by allegedly working for the Chinese government.
China hawks in both Canada and the United States have long been frustrated with Ottawa’s reluctance to respond to Chinese interference. Justin Trudeau’s government has been accused of doing too little to prevent agents of Beijing from exerting influence over, harassing, and even threatening members of the diaspora.
Court documents allege Majcher "used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People's Republic of China," and "contributed to the Chinese government's efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law."
Majcher, who retired from the Mounties in 2007 after working undercover on money-laundering investigations, has been living in Hong Kong, running a corporate risk firm. In 2019, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported he was involved in Project Dragon, a Chinese government program aimed at recovering money illegally moved out of the country. Human rights activists say China uses white-collar crime investigations to target and intimidate critics overseas.
Unlike the US, Canada does not have a foreign agent registry, which makes it harder to investigate and prosecute those working on behalf of foreign governments. Trudeau has so far not called a public inquiry into the matter, but in the most recent federal budget, his government provided $49 million to the RCMP to “protect Canadians from harassment and intimidation” from foreign governments.David Johnston, Canada's special rapporteur on foreign interference, holds a press conference in Ottawa.
Chinese interference inquiry goes from no to maybe so
The foreign interference saga continues in Canada. Last week, former Governor General David Johnston, who helmed an investigation into alleged Chinese election meddling and recommended against a public inquiry despite opposition calls for one, resigned as special rapporteur amid torqued claims that he was too close to PM Justin Trudeau. Days earlier, the House of Commons passed a motion asking him to resign.
When Johnston resigned, the government called the opposition’s bluff on the inquiry, asking them to supply suggestions for who might lead it and how it’ll keep secret all the sensitive information involved. Not to be outdone by Liberals, the Conservatives said they would cooperate with other opposition parties to come up with some ideas.
For now, attention is focused on Chinese election interference, but past chatter has pointed to other countries of interest, including Russia and India.
In the US, meanwhile, there has been concern with Russian interference in American elections, and the country has conducted two foreign meddling probes. A 2020 Senate panel found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. In 2022, attention turned to Chinese interference in the midterms on social media and through hacking operations. With races heating up for Biden and Trudeau in 2024 and 2025, expect more concern about foreign meddling on both sides of the border.