The Fall of Erin O'Toole - Part One
That foreign interference from China occurred in the last two elections is not under debate, and the former Conservative leader was one of the targets. Most just don't understand how it was executed.
As a public inquiry into foreign interference gets underway, the former Conservative leader will be participating as an intervenor. Falling short of the full status granted by Justice Hogue to some of those accused of assisting the Chinese Communist Party in foreign interference activities, O’Toole will have the limited capacity to make legal submissions and see only evidence presented to the public.
“We must realize that Canada has been like the frog in a pot of boiling water,” O’Toole, who resigned from his seat last June, told a parliamentary committee. “Multiple governments of both stripes ignored our intelligence agencies who’ve been warning about the heat in the water from China.”
That foreign interference occurred in the last two elections is not under dispute. Foreign interference, largely from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), was indeed present, according to reports from Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), who called it the "greatest strategic threat to national security” in a March 2023 statement.
Our national security intelligence system believes that this is the single-greatest threat posed to our democratic nation, and we barely understand how we are being attacked. Aside from the occasional direct run taken at us from government officials or state media mouthpieces issuing idle wolf warrior warnings, of which I have also been the target of, most of these assaults occur in the shadows, in places many Canadians don’t go. Most of us aren’t even aware that they are happening, and they have been carried out, largely undetected - even by teams of national security specialists. Until now.
They are executed using a sophisticated network. The networks include Chinese consulate officials, state propaganda outlets, domestic foreign-language media organizations, United Front “hometown associations,” international students, social media platforms, anonymous accounts, and online phone applications. And parts of this network, inexplicably, have been praised for their contributions by our Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau.
I know this. Because we found one of the networks that coordinated attacks against Erin O’Toole. It led back to a supercomputing centre based in Zhengzhou, China, that is sanctioned for military collaboration by our southern allies, the United States of America.
To find the interference networks and understand them, you need to go where they operate. A place that is controlled and regulated by the Chinese Communist Party.
You need to go into WeChat.
So that is what we did.
The following is a description of what was found there and what we discovered in our searches thereafter.
WeChat or Weixin (微信) is a Chinese social media platform. Dubbed a “super-app” due to its range of features, it was developed by the multinational conglomerate Tencent (腾讯). Data is stored, depending on your location, in China under Weixin if you are in the mainland, or in Europe or Singapore for other international users. What can be accessed and/or used by the Chinese government has been a point of contention, leading to bans of the application on government-issued electronic devices.
Reading Tencent’s terms of service agreement and privacy policy regarding the Weixin brand should be enough to discourage anyone from using the application.
They are as follows:
8.1.2 You understand and agree that Weixin is committed to providing users with a civilized, healthy, standardized and orderly network environment. You shall not use the Weixin account or the Software and Services to produce, copy, publish, or disseminate content interfering with normal operation of Weixin or infringing lawful rights and interests of other users or third parties, including but not limited to the following:
8.1.2.1 You shall not publish, transmit, disseminate, or store content that violates the laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China:
(1) Violating the basic principles established by the Constitution;
(2) Endangering national security, divulge state secrets, subvert state power and undermine national unity;
(3) Damaging national honor and interest;
(4) Inciting national hatred and ethnic discrimination, and destroy national unity;
(5) Undermining national religious policies and promote cults and feudal superstition;
(6) Spreading rumors, disturb the social order and undermine social stability;
(7) Disseminating obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, terror or abet any crime;
(8) Insulting or slandering others and infringe legitimate rights and interests of others;
(9) Inciting illegal assembly, association, procession, demonstrations and gatherings disrupting the social order;
(10) Carrying out any activity in the name of any illegal civil organization;
(11) Not in compliance with the Interim Provisions on the Administration of the Development of Public Information Services of Instant Messaging Tools and comply with the requirements of "seven bottom lines" including laws and regulations, socialist systems, national interests, legitimate interests of citizens, public order, social morality and information authenticity;
(12) Containing any other content prohibited by the law and administrative regulations.
These are the draconian rules of the most popular social media application not only in China, but in the world, laid out by the dictatorship that Justin Trudeau claims to admire.
Once WeChat was downloaded and I had my account set up, it was fairly easy to manoeuvre, even for someone barely able to navigate simple Chinese, which would be used to write what we were seeking. I was looking for, in particular, any articles smearing or unfairly targeting Erin O’Toole which may have been circulated prior to the 2021 election. More importantly, to find anything that attacked him which may not have originated from a domestic source as an organic campaign. Canadian citizens are free to use social media to voice their opinions and yes, even their displeasure with politicians. What we were seeking was something that might be able to be linked to a state-sponsored campaign backed by the PRC. It didn’t take long to find what we were looking for.
Findings in Special Rapporteur David Johnston’s first and final report released on May 23rd conflicted with Erin O’Toole’s testimony given on May 30th based on CSIS briefings. Johnston’s report concluded that the SITE Task Force (Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force), which is comprised of various departments including officials from CSE, CSIS, Global Affairs Canada, and the RCMP, was not able to link an orchestrated attack to a [Chinese] state-sponsored source. The findings read as follows:
“There was concern about information circulating about Mr. O’Toole’s posture on China. The CPC provided information to the PCO, which in turn provided it to the SITE Task Force to investigate. The conclusion was that, although information had been circulating, it was unable to tie it to a state-sponsored source. Mr. O’Toole continued to assert over the next several months that PRC interference cost the party eight or nine seats. As explained in my section on my conclusions, it is hard to accept this assertion, which has been rejected by the SITE Task Force and the 2021 Panel.”
A Globe and Mail story outlined after the threats which were identified by CSIS that plagued Erin O’Toole’s campaign. Those included funding from the CCP’s United Front Work Department (中共中央统一战线工作部) to “create specific products of misinformation;” that the department of the Central Committee of the CCP also “organized and directed” affiliated organizations to boost these claims; and that WeChat was utilized as a platform to amplify this messaging.
Johnston seemed to be unable to reconcile the discrepancy in intelligence with his report’s findings under questioning in committee on June 6th, stating meekly that the information he used to come to conclusions in his report was “based on the information we had at the time.”
Why he had different access to confidential intelligence than O’Toole was granted is a question that remains unanswered and one of the great mysteries of the failed inquiry. Johnston of course resigned on June 9th, citing a “highly partisan atmosphere” as the rationale for doing so.
I decided to try to draw my own conclusions. I fired up the WeChat application and set to work.
After locating the general search engine for the messaging platform, I simply typed in “Erin O’Toole". In English. It took me all of about a minute to figure out how to do this. The very first article that appeared at the top of my search was exactly what I was looking for.
It contained a story about Erin O’Toole being “anti-China,” which showed messages collected from various Chinese online forums, by and large declaring him a racist. “I will never choose an anti-China idiot,” read one.
A quick search showed that the media outlet running the piece was formed in 2014, just before Justin Trudeau was elected Prime Minister, by a group of international students studying here from China, one on an international scholarship; that it appeared they had received funding to do so; and that it had an editorial board located in China.
They seemed to quickly establish a relationship that granted them access to high level PRC diplomats in Ottawa. In fact, one of their interviews with our then-Chinese Ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, who is reportedly known for and “proud” of his wolf-warrior style of diplomacy, showed another familiar face present at the meeting.
Special Rapporteur David Johnston.
To be continued….
I would like to thank all of the brave Chinese-Canadians who translate and contribute to this important work but wish to remain unnamed. I couldn’t do it without you. You are true heroes.
Andy you tweeted regarding safe supply sites. Read up on Purdue Pharma the 8 billion dollar criminal prosecution fine for causing a national crisis and tragedy in the USA for prescription opioids
Sound familiar for the prescription opioids at the safe supply sites in Canada. They are causing a national crisis and tragedy?
By the way are you covering the Detective Grus trumped up phony police services act trial for investigating 9 baby deaths after the vaccines came out. In California a hospital has had 20 to 30 fetal denise' per month after the vaccines came out. Steve Kirsch has the interview.
Erin Davis former CHFI radio host lost her 24 yr old daughter in 2015 who died in her sleep. 7 years later Erin Davis tweeted the cause was from an off label drug given in Canada. Detective Grus legal team needs to step up to the plate and do the research. This is a scam trial. It is intimidation.
Erin Otoole was from Ontario.
Is everyone aware Ontario has a law on N95 masks that they need to be properly tested and fitted and hospitals ignored that law and doctors denied it existed. It was enacted in 1993. Therefore all doctors or politicians pushing N95s on social media or tv were violating this law. They told you to go to Dollarama or Shoppers and get a N95. It was better they said. Now isnt that breaking the law they knew but denied thereby affecting health of the citizens even calling people who refused masks granny killers.
Doctors fighting illegal attacks for writing mask exemptions might like to use this law and the nurses union in Ontario who sued 2x and won not to wear masks if they refused a vaccine should have known this law so where were they to support healthcare and the public from mask mandates. What about every professed health minister or health dept in Canada especially Ontario. Incompetent not to mention many other key words to describe them especially those profitting off of masks.
What did Erin Otoole say on masks. Scour his social media to find out. You would expect politicians and people like Christine Elliott or Dr. Kieran Moore or Dr. Barbara Yaffe Dr Williams or Dr Eileen DeVilla to know the law. That law is very reasonable from a safety standpoint and health. Maybe clown people like the Peterborough MOH or the Dr.Lawrence Loh former MOH of Peel or the Niagara MOH would like to have done their research before actimg like the clowns they were during this pandemic..
The foreign interference was known years ago. Nothing done. Andy you outed lots in 2021 and ignored. You were suspended on twitter to cover it up. KPMG was wining and dining with the CRA years ago in the Isle of Man tax evasion. Nothing done. Yet KPMG and government officials trapped in arrive can scam again. Larry Brock is fantastic on behalf of citizens.