in World News RCMP memo warns of Chinese interference on Canadian university campuses to affect election
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Canada’s federal police warned China’s ‘powerful security and intelligence apparatus’ poses a unique threat, naming Beijing as the only foreign power of serious concern.
(LifeSiteNews) — An internal briefing note from Canada’s top police force warned that agents of the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) are targeting Canadian universities to intimidate them and in some instances challenge them on their “political positions.”
The December 3, 2024, memo titled “On-Campus Foreign Interference” from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) did not mention specific universities by name but noted that foreign interference was sophisticated and came solely from China.
The memo stated that as Canada’s academic institutions rely on “open, creative and collaborative environments” to foster independent debate, some “foreign intelligence services and government officials including the People’s Republic of China can exploit this culture of openness to monitor and coerce students, faculty and other university officials.”
“On university campuses foreign states may seek to exert undue influence, covertly and through proxies, by harassing dissidents and suppressing academic freedoms and free speech that are not aligned with their political interests,” the RCMP noted in the memo.
The memo noted that foreign agents’ influence in “public debate at academic institutions” may lead to them sponsoring “specific events to shape discussion rather than engage in free debate and dialogue.”
“They may also directly or indirectly attempt to disrupt public events or other on-campus activities they perceive as challenging their political positions and spread disinformation, undermining confidence in academic discourse and expertise,” the memo observed.
Notably, the memo singled out China, and thus the CCP, as the only nation of interest, noting that the “threat posed by the People’s Republic and its powerful security and intelligence apparatus including malign activities targeting our democratic institutions, communities and economic prosperity” remains a “concern.”
Some of the activities that foreign agents engaged included the recruitment of CCP sympathizers and “in some instances,” noted the memo, saw students be “pressured to participate in activities that are covertly organized by a foreign power.”
“Universities can also be used as venues for ‘talent spotting’ and intelligence collection in specific circumstances,” the memo stated.
The final report from the Foreign Interference Commission concluded that operatives from China may have had a hand in helping to elect a handful of MPs in both the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections. It also concluded that China was the primary foreign interference threat to Canada.