2 witnesses to give secret evidence on China meddling to foreign interference inquiry
Global News
One witness is alleging that China and its United Front Work Department have infiltrated some Chinese Canadian community associations and they may be harmed if they are named.
The judge overseeing Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission of Inquiry has decided two people can give evidence in secret about how the People’s Republic of China “co-opts and leverages some Chinese Canadian community associations and politicians of Chinese origin.”
Justice Marie-Josee Hogue made the decision in a written ruling dated Wednesday which is not posted on the commission’s website.
Her ruling, obtained by Global News, grants two witnesses — “Person B and Person C” — the right to testify by secret affidavits that will not be disclosed to the public or inquiry participants.
Hogue also issued a simultaneous order to seal their affidavits from the public for 99 years, after commission materials are deposited at the National Archives of Canada when the inquiry ends.
Only a summary of the Person B and Person C affidavits will be publicly released to protect the two persons from possible physical threats, intimidation and harassment, and loss of their jobs because of pressure by the People’s Republic of China or its proxies, Hogue’s ruling states.
Hogue issued the ruling in response to an application by the commission’s own lawyers, who were acting on behalf of the two witnesses.
“I am satisfied by the information contained in the application that the fears expressed by Person B and Person C are not only credible, but also compelling,” Hogue wrote.
The application that commission lawyers filed for the witnesses was also sealed for 99 years.
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