So I've been sort of following the NSICORP (National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians) report revelations about foreign interference in Canadian politics, except there really hadn't been any, nothing concrete at any rate, about exactly who did what and to whom.
Until this happened:
— National Newswatch (@natnewswatch) June 11, 2024
@ElizabethMay says the media firestorm steaming from the NSICOP is "overblown." She says the person (on p.26 of public report) is a FORMER MP who wittingly participated should be prosecuted. She says there is no list of disloyal MPs. 1/2
— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024
May says fewer than 5 MPs are named in the report.
— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024
She starts to talk talking about the Senate, but stops herself and says, no, she is just talking about people in the HoC. None of the MPs, the low number, she suggests, could be described as witting participants.
The few MPs mentioned were unknowingly helped, maybe they should have asked who was paying for busloads of people showing up to nomination contests, May says, but that's not uncommon in Canadian politics (notes interference in federal PC race in '83).
— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024
May says she was also surprised to see FI in the media in the form of undisclosed sponsored content.
— Althia Raj (@althiaraj) June 11, 2024
— Roddy 🇨🇦 (@RodKahx) June 11, 2024Why should anyone believe Elizabeth May?
Well for starters, she has the security clearance that Pierre Poilievre doesn't have, refuses to get, and told everyone that he would be muzzled by.
Just saying.
Why couldn't the MPs on the committee provide this kind of clarity? Their role is to read secret stuff and tell Canadians what to think. They are doing the first part right, not sure about the second. https://t.co/NeXCpuEvqO
— Stephen Maher (@stphnmaher) June 11, 2024
There is, of course, one more good reason Poillievre won’t get a security clearance to learn the names. He already knows them.
— Christopher Byrne 🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@CBinVAN) June 10, 2024
Here are some recent interesting and useful opinions:
From twitter user Angela, who is from Nova Scotia and usually tweets about Ukraine:
— Angela 🇨🇦 (@Angeladoneit) June 5, 2024What is or isn’t foreign interference In Canada?
Foreign interference is NOT
- Aggressive lobbying, lawful advocacy, or dissent
- Overt engagement with entities in Canada
- Canadian entities openly advocating support for a foreign state
- Use of foreign… pic.twitter.com/lsI10kBZWC
Her lengthy tweet says this:
What is or isn’t foreign interference In Canada?
Foreign interference is NOT
- Aggressive lobbying, lawful advocacy, or dissent
- Overt engagement with entities in Canada
- Canadian entities openly advocating support for a foreign state
- Use of foreign state media outlets in Canada to spread propaganda
Grey Zone + Deception
- Paying Canadian media outlets to produce foreign propaganda (without attribution)
- Providing support (financial or other-wise) to friendly community organizations in Canada (without attribution)
- Corruptive practices (e.g., exchange of small favours, payments, inducements to further a relationship
- Foreign state coordination with private or non-state entities (e.g., companies to pressure policymakers
- Engaging with third party groups/persons in Canada to 'monitor' entities of concern (e.g., dissidents)
Foreign Interference IS…
- Obfuscation of state involvement in influence efforts, use of third parties to further hostile state interests
- Deceptive activities meant to manipulate individuals
- Clandestinely or deceptively using entities (e.g., person, group, company) in Canada to perform duties normally assigned to officials of a foreign state
- Stifling open discussion of contentious issues via threats and/or coercion
- Funding and/or supporting electoral candidates or political parties via proxies
- Seeking to control or unduly influence diaspora communities and groups
- Disinformation campaigns - both online and offline.
Wesley Wark, Agents of influence in our political class Or, what is to be done?
...In a democracy like that of Canada, there is nothing inherently wrong with divided loyalties, so long as they are kept in balance. They have to be considered part of the fabric of a country like Canada, multi-cultural and built on immigration. You could even say that divided loyalties should be protected, that they enrich, that they are a birthright.
Nothing wrong with divided loyalties until they are weaponized, until they cease to be divided and tilt, for whatever reason, in favour of the homeland state. This crossing of a red line might be forced, through compromise. It might be a product of corruption, and self-inflicted. It might involve ideological conviction. It might even involve the chasing of risks, thrill-seeking. This mix of potential motives has long been a formula of counter-espionage profiling, familiar from the Cold War....
The truth of the report doesn’t matter, because they are building an dystopian alternate universe in order to undermine trust in reality. This is just one more example of that. https://t.co/U7lbCM1F5O
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) June 10, 2024
Dale Smith Roundup: Temporarily abdicating responsibility to Justice Hogue
...more people are latching onto the mention in the NSICOP report about compromised media outlets—those on the left are convinced this is talking about Postmedia being on the take, and now Conservative MPs are putting out sh*tpost videos trying to claim that mainstream media writ-large is on the take so they aren’t to be trusted. The report didn’t actually say anything about mainstream media, and if you have a grasp of the media landscape, the report is likely referring to ethno-cultural media outlets serving diaspora communities, as there is plenty of documented evidence of particularly Chinese interference in some of these outlets in Canada. But the Conservatives don’t care about the truth, or context—they want to flood the zone with bullsh*t in order to create this dystopian alternate reality for their followers with the explicit aim of reducing their trust in reality, and that’s exactly what they have weaponised the report to do....
Finally, Evan Scrimshaw gives us his thoughts about May's presser and sums up with these words of wisdom: Interference's Internal Contradictions
...It’s probably comforting to think that we’ve been betrayed, because it gives all of us some enemy to blame for our current malaise. It is easier to blame China/India/Iran/whoever else for politicians we dislike and don’t respect, and the conspiracist nonsense is a distraction. The Conservatives are not going to the right on trans rights because of foreign interference and the Liberals aren’t pro climate action because of the globalist WEF, they hold the positions they do because that’s where their voters are.
Foreign interference is a real problem. There are probably lots of people who have lived in between the lines to win their nominations. And those lines should be clarified and those gaps closed. But the panic over foreign interference seems to be a limp vessel, for a simple reason; it’s a hell of a lot easier to say that Senior Politicians are compromised by foreign governments than to accept our current discontent is our own fault.
And us stepping up and acknowledging that is the best way to move forward.
