Apr 3 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — An attack on a transit bus in Surrey, B.C. over the weekend is being treated as terrorism after RCMP national security police took over the investigation. Abdul Aziz Kawam was initially charged with attempted murder for allegedly slashing a victim’s throat on Saturday morning, but prosecutors added four counts of terrorism on Monday. A second […]
Mar 31 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Two former intelligence officials called for a complete transformation of Canada’s security apparatus to counter expanding foreign interference operations that they say have been essentially ignored by Ottawa since the 1990s. On Friday the House of Commons standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics heard recommendations for a new national and independent office […]
Mar 22 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Liberal MP Han Dong, who is at the centre of Chinese influence allegations, privately advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to two separate national security sources. Both sources said Dong allegedly suggested to Han Tao, China’s consul general in Toronto, that […]
Mar 10 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — An election interference network directed by China’s Toronto consulate allegedly involved a sitting member of the Ontario legislature, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation into Beijing’s covert efforts during the 2019 federal election. Those sources assert that Vincent Ke, a Progressive Conservative member in Premier Doug Ford’s government since 2018, served as a […]
Mar 8 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Justin Trudeau said he was never briefed on the issue, and his security adviser has dismissed it out of hand, but two high-level national security reports before and after the 2019 election suggest they were warned that Chinese government officials were funnelling money to Canadian political candidates. The two intelligence reports, from 2019 and 2022, […]
Mar 2 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — A Canadian intelligence officer has been fired for speaking publicly about what he felt were inadequate COVID-19 policies at CSIS headquarters during the height of the pandemic. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service dismissed Gary Vos Smith for giving an interview to Global News about the lack of mandatory masking at the agency’s building in Ottawa. […]
Mar 1 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was provided “multiple” intelligence briefs regarding Beijing’s role in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections, Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser confirmed Thursday at a multi-partisan committee on foreign interference. Jody Thomas was testifying before a group of MPs that began hearings last November in response to revelations in Global News […]
Feb 25 2023 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Three weeks before Canada’s 2019 federal election, national security officials allegedly gave an urgent, classified briefing to senior aides from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, warning them that one of their candidates was part of a Chinese foreign interference network. According to sources, the candidate in question was Han Dong, then a former Ontario MPP […]
Dec 21 2022 — Sam Cooper — Global News — An unredacted 2020 national security document alleges that Beijing used an extensive network of community groups to conceal the flow of funds between Chinese officials and Canadian members of an election interference network, all in an effort to advance its own political agenda in the 2019 federal contest. The Privy Council Office document, which Global […]
Dec 13 2022 — Sam Cooper — Global News — A February 2020 Privy Council Office national security memo documented China‘s alleged “subtle but effective foreign interference networks” that targeted the 2019 federal contest, said MP Michael Cooper. In the Procedure and House Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday, the Conservative member from Edmonton quoted from a redacted document, saying: “Investigations into activities linked to the Canadian […]
Nov 16 2022 — Sam Cooper — Global News — A prominent businessman in Toronto’s Chinese community is the subject of two separate investigations involving foreign interference, sources tell Global News, both related to a series of briefings and memos that Canadian security officials allegedly gave to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau beginning in January. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has investigated Wei Chengyi for his […]
Nov 7 2022 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Canadian intelligence officials have warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that China has allegedly been targeting Canada with a vast campaign of foreign interference, which includes funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election, according to Global News sources. Delivered to the prime minister and several cabinet members in […]
Aug 17 2022 — Sam Cooper — Global News — A Russian energy billionaire was able to buy a majority stake in a Canadian oil and gas company without any regulatory scrutiny, despite a longstanding battle in a U.S. federal court over his alleged role in schemes involving international money-laundering, kickbacks and a disgraced former Ukrainian prime minister, Global News has learned. Igor Makarov, who […]
Jan 14 2021 — Sam Cooper — Global News — In October 2014, Canadian intelligence leaders were invited to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s headquarters in Chantilly, Va. The DEA had a theory: the upper echelons of global money laundering, terrorism, drug-trafficking and organized crime all bleed together. And only a handful of men in this murky world of extremely powerful criminals had organizations capable […]
Dec 2 2020 — Sam Cooper — Global News — Top executives at CanSino Biologics — the Chinese company involved in a failed COVID-19 vaccine collaboration with Canada — were also part of a Chinese government program designed to incentivize people to transfer research and knowledge to China in exchange for salaries, funding and other benefits. Several former Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials interviewed by […]