Erin O’Toole, the former leader of the Conservative party, has revealed that Canada’s intelligence agency warned him that he would be indefinitely targeted by the Chinese government into the future.
O’Toole disclosed this piece of information before Members of Parliament (MPs) during a parliamentary committee session. The committee is overseeing a probe into issues concerning foreign interference and the infringements of rights of fellow parliamentarians.
This investigation was a response to reports surfacing in the latter part of the previous year and early this year. These reports claimed alleged meddling by Beijing in the domestic matters of Canada, particularly during the federal elections of 2019 and 2021.
Inlight of these reports, the federal government, during May, authenticated a news piece stating that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had obtained information in 2021. The information was about the Chinese government’s purported plans to intimidate a longstanding Conservative MP, Michael Chong, and his family members resident in Hong Kong.
Such actions led Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to emphasise the importance of intelligence agencies providing parliamentarians with such crucial information.
O’Toole highlighted he first realised Beijing’s continued interest in him when in late May, just before his political retirement, he queried CSIS officials’ use of the present tense when labelling him a “target of interest”. Consequently, he infers an ongoing interest from the Chinese government.
