MPs from the governing Liberal Party are backing a proposal to suspend the regular activity of a special parliamentary committee dedicated to probing Canada-China relations, even as hearings by a public inquiry into foreign interference – primarily by Beijing – continue in Ottawa.
A Liberal MP’s motion under debate at the Commons Canada-China committee would end regular meetings and “subsequently meet only for urgent matters,” either at the call of the chair after consultation with parties or by special request from members. The committee typically meets Mondays when the House is sitting.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said what the Liberals are proposing would “effectively shut down” the parliamentary committee’s work. He accused the Liberals of doing this to skirt ministerial accountability in Canada-China relations.
René Villemure, the Bloc Québécois MP who is vice-chair of the Canada-China committee, said his party opposes suspending a body that still has lots of work to do. “The existence of this committee is still justified,” he said. “The Liberals are trying to sweep under the rug all these debates which absolutely must continue. We intend to do our job to the end.”
The Commons’ Special Committee on the Canada-China Relationship was created in December, 2019, over the objections of the Liberals and with the support of the Bloc Québécois and NDP. It went on to study the fraught relationship between China and the West under the increasingly aggressive leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping but also Beijing’s quashing of dissent and opposition in Hong Kong and its political inference and harassment in Canada.
Its work uncovered why two Chinese Canadian scientists were fired from the country’s high-security infectious disease lab in Winnipeg. Documents unearthed by the committee in February found Xiangguo Qiu was terminated after a confidential probe found she provided confidential scientific information to China, posed “a realistic and credible threat to Canada’s economic security” and had engaged in clandestine meetings with Chinese officials.
Senior Canadian officials have previously told The Globe and Mail that the Chinese government has repeatedly expressed anger and frustration at the fact Beijing is being regularly criticized – unfairly in China’s opinion – at the continuing public inquiry into foreign interference and other forums.
Liberal MP Robert Oliphant, a member of the committee who also serves as Parliamentary Assistant to the Foreign Affairs Minister, said Thursday that both his party and the NDP do not want to hold regular meetings any longer.
The NDP did not respond to a request for comment on whether it backs the motion.
The motion is being debated even as a public inquiry into foreign interference holds hearings in Ottawa to probe foreign meddling by China and other countries – activity that commission chair Justice Marie-Josée Hogue has described as “a stain on our electoral process.”
Mr. Chong said the committee has yet to hear from Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Canada’s suspended activity with the controversial Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s trip to China. He said it also needs to study Canada’s continuing warship transits through the Taiwan Strait – trips that come under heavy criticism from China.
Mr. Oliphant said the Liberals and NDP feel the committee has reached the point where it is just doing “make-work projects to keep the committee going and we want to try to do it more on an ad hoc basis as issues arise.”
Mr. Oliphant said MPs on the Commons’ international trade committee are doing work on Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles while the natural resources committee can deal with Canada-U.S. co-operation on critical minerals, an effort to counter Beijing which is now the dominant player in global mineral processing.
Foreign interference is also being examined in many places, including the public inquiry, he said.
“But we are not calling for the disbanding of the committee. We are calling for it to be more ad hoc,” he said.
Mr. Oliphant said the Canada-China committee did some excellent studies on China’s illegal occupation of Tibet, its crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong as well as Beijing’s repression of Muslim Uyghurs.
Ken Hardie, the Liberal chair of the Canada-China committee, said the committee is still finishing a study on Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy. He said he’s proud of the work it’s done, including on Taiwan, and “would not be upset if the committee just continued on as it is.”
Mr. Hardie said if the motion passes, members could always request meetings to consider more studies.
Mr. Chong, however, said it’s not an easy feat to restart a shuttered committee and draw upon resources and support staff after they have been reallocated to other tasks.
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who put forward the motion, said this proposal would not “suspend its operations in any permanent way,” but would ensure “we only study issues that are specific to the Canada-China relationship and where there is some urgency to their study.”
He said the committee was first struck “given the unreasonable detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and the weaponization of trade” by China. “Both of which were resolved after much ordeal,” Mr. Erskine-Smith said.
He said he’s open to changes in the wording of his motion.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a former top Canadian public servant and a director of the China Strategic Risks Institute, a think tank, said the risks in the Canada-China relationship are not abating and no other committee has such a specific mandate to study this.
“The Chinese embassy would be very happy to see the demise of the Canada-China Committee,” she said. “It has shone a light on all Beijing’s tactics that the Chinese state doesn’t want us to see.”
She noted testimony at the public inquiry has told Canadians that China’s interference is growing ever more aggressive and asked which committee would be best placed to keep tabs on future relations with Beijing.