Toronto Association for Democracy in China (TADC) is deeply disappointed with the Foreign Interference Commission Final Report. See full statement below.
《多倫多支持中國民運會》對《外國干預調查委員會》的最終報告深感失望。聲明全文如下。
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- 中文
Toronto – January 30, 2025
Toronto Association for Democracy in China (TADC) is deeply disappointed with the Foreign Interference Commission Final Report.
The report is underwhelming. It downplays the impact of hostile interference, infiltration and influencing in Canada. It not only undermines the gravity of the threat, but also sends a dangerous signal to hostile regimes that such activities can continue unchecked.
“Chinese diaspora groups, alongside with Uyghurs and Tibetans, have been living with these interferences from China for many years,” said Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China. “We understand the language, we can decipher cultural nuances, we are alerted to the nefarious ways in which the PRC operates. We are the real victims.”
“Foreign interference is like an iceberg,” Kwan noted. “There are infiltration and influencing operations in many areas of our society that are either invisible to most of us, or are ignored.”
Justice Hogue correctly noted that her limited mandate prevents her from exploring further. The downside of this is that the Canadian public is not educated on the pervasive and dangerous nature of foreign interference in our society.
“It should also be noted that the PRC government, through its agencies such as the United Front Work Department, often operates in the grey areas of law, ethics and morality,” said Winnie Ng, the association’s co-chair. “We cannot simply take their words at face value or judge their actions based on Canadian terms of engagement.”
TADC also takes issue with the blanket statement that although some ridings were affected in the last two elections, the overall election results were not affected. This downplays the role of hostile interference in our democratic system. One electoral interference is one too many.
While Justice Hogue noted a comprehensive list of structural deficiencies such as lack of transparency in government communication, over-secrecy in the intelligence community, or, in the case of the delay in approving the surveillance warrant on Michael Chan, “highly unusual delays” where “everyone involved dropped the ball.”
But no fix is offered, no blame assigned. We understand that this is not in the mandate or the role of the Commission, but public trust in our government has been further eroded.
TADC welcomes Justice Hogue’s suggestions that misinformation/disinformation and transnational repression are two important areas that deserve further attention. We are hopeful that at least this report points to a way forward. The rest is up to our collective political will.
多倫多 – 2025年1月30日
《多倫多支持中國民運會》對《外國干預調查委員會》(Foreign Interference Commission) 的最終報告深感失望。
該報告內容乏善足陳，其對敵對勢力在加拿大的干預、滲透及影響輕描淡寫，不僅削弱了此類威脅的嚴重性，更向敵對政權發出了危險信號，暗示這些行為可無限制地持續進行。
《多倫多支持中國民運會》共同主席關卓中表示：「海外華人群體與維吾爾族及藏族社群一樣，長期以來一直承受來自中國的干預。我們熟悉中共的語言，能夠解讀其文化脈絡，並對中國政府的惡劣運作方式保持高度警覺。我們才是真正的受害者。」
報告中聲稱加拿大擁有「穩健且具彈性的體系」，然而，此種說法不僅可能令加拿大民眾產生錯誤的安全感，更可能削弱離散族群長期以來致力提升公眾對外國干預問題認識的努力。
關卓中進一步指出：「外國干預猶如一座冰山，滲透及影響行動存在於我們社會的許多領域。然而，報告只接觸到冰山一角，大部分人亦對此毫無察覺，甚至選擇忽視。」
霍格法官正確地指出，她的職權範圍有限，無法進一步深入調查。然而，這也導致加拿大公眾無法充分了解外國干預在本國社會中所帶來的廣泛及嚴重影響。
《多倫多支持中國民運會》共同主席吳溫溫補充：「值得關注的是，中共政府透過統戰部等機構，經常在法律、道德及倫理的灰色地帶運作。我們不能僅憑其表面言論判斷，也不能以加拿大的準則來衡量其行為。」
此外，TADC 對報告中所作出的籠統結論表示質疑。儘管報告提及過去兩次聯邦選舉中某些選區受到了影響，但聲稱整體選舉結果未受影響的說法，無疑淡化了敵對勢力對加拿大民主制度的干預程度。任何一次選舉干預，都是不可接受的。
霍格法官雖然詳列了多項結構性缺陷，例如政府部門缺乏透明度、情報機構過度保密，以及在審批針對陳國治的監視令過程中出現「極不尋常的拖延」且「所有相關人士均有失誤」。然而，報告未能提供有效的解決方案，也未明確追究任何責任。我們理解這或許超出了委員會的職權範圍，但遺憾的是，這進一步削弱了公眾對政府的信任。
TADC 歡迎霍格法官提出的建議，指出失實誤導資訊的傳播及跨國鎮壓是兩個需持續密切關注的重要議題。我們期望這份報告至少能夠指明方向，至於是否能夠帶來實質改變，則取決於我們的集體政治意願。