MPs call for hearings on Chinese hack targeting legislators, lack of warning from Ottawa

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Members of Parliament who say they were not informed by Ottawa that they had been targeted by hackers tied to the Chinese government are seeking House of Commons hearings on the matter.

As The Globe and Mail first reported Monday, Canadian MPs and senators who belong to a global interparliamentary organization critical of the Chinese government say the FBI recently informed their group that 18 legislators in Canada were targeted in 2021 by hackers linked to Beijing. The Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China last week that it passed on this information to foreign governments in 2022.

The legislators say the Canadian government never told them of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) cyberattack.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, one of the 18, asked Commons Speaker Greg Fergus on Monday to consider whether parliamentary privileges have been breached both by the fact that Chinese hackers targeted the MPs and that the Canadian government failed to notify them. Mr. Fergus will now weigh whether the evidence outlined by Mr. Genuis is sufficiently strong for the House to be asked to debate the matter and send to a committee to investigate whether MPs’ privileges have been breached.

Mr. Genuis told the Commons that if parliamentarians had been informed, they could have taken extra precautions to protect the security of their personal and parliamentary e-mail accounts. He noted that it was only one year ago that Canada learned the government had failed to inform Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong that in 2021 he and his relatives were being targeted by China after he led a campaign to condemn Beijing in the Commons for its repression of Uyghurs.

“Our work as parliamentarians was under attack and, once again, Canadian authorities responsible for protecting our democracy did not pass critical information along to parliamentarians – information that they had,” Mr. Genuis said. “I think one remedy we may want to consider is having Parliament ask foreign like-minded intelligence agencies to inform Parliament directly of threats against its members.”

Explainer: A guide to foreign interference and China’s suspected influence in Canada

For privacy reasons, IPAC is leaving it to Canadian parliamentarians to self-identify. So far, two Liberal MPs, four Conservative MPs and one senator have acknowledged they were targeted: Mr. Genuis; John McKay; Judy Sgro; James Bezan; Stephanie Kusie; Tom Kmiec; and Senator Marilou McPhedran.

There are about 30 Canadian parliamentarians who belong to IPAC. Eighteen of them were informed last week by IPAC that they were targeted. The group comprises about 200 legislators from 30 countries including Japan, Australia, India, the United States, Britain and a number in Europe. It was established in 2020 to ensure a co-ordinated response among democracies to the actions of the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on matters including human rights, security, trade and the rules-based international order.

Ms. Sgro, a Liberal MP who was targeted, rose in the Commons Monday to speak in support of Mr. Genuis.

“We are the voices of Canadians,” she said. “Whether we’re talking about China, Iran or Russia, we have to be able to speak with the protection that’s required and not have to be concerned about being intimidated, or hacked, or other things that would happen to us.”

In a joint statement on Sunday, Mr. McKay, co-chair of the Commons defence committee, and Mr. Genuis say they are upset about Ottawa’s failure to warn them. “Steps should be taken to ensure legislators are informed of attacks or potential attacks against them in the future, and to sanction those responsible for this attack,” they said.

The office of Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has declined to say whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Mr. LeBlanc knew of this targeting. It also declined to say whether the government asked the RCMP to investigate, whether it informed the continuing public inquiry into foreign interference or whether it lodged a protest with China.

Dan Stanton, a former senior manager at the Canadian Security intelligence Service, said the government needs to provide the spy agency with the legislative authority to inform MPs and senators when they are being targeted by hostile states. This can only happen if the government follows through with long-promised changes to the CSIS Act, he said.

“CSIS does not have an appropriate disclosure regime to sensitize parliamentarians unless it involves physical threats,” said Mr. Stanton, director of the national security program at the University of Ottawa. “And if the information emanates from a third party – an allied service, for example – it is more challenging. Disclosures to parliamentarians, universities and local law enforcement remain off-limits until the legislation changes.”

The government appears to be preparing a suite of national security measures to fight foreign interference.

During a press conference on Monday, B.C. Premier David Eby mentioned federal legislation that hasn’t actually been announced yet. “The federal government has introduced legislation that I hope will pass quickly that will support briefing premiers across Canada as well as other key decision makers on intelligence and understanding the level of threat – to take action at their levels of authority,” he said. “And that’s something certainly we would like to do and look forward to that law being passed and receiving those briefings.”

Jean-Sébastien Comeau, a spokesman for Mr. LeBlanc, said the government had consulted on legislative changes to keep up with the “evolution of the threat posed by foreign interference” and would be “proposing legislative amendments to Parliament soon.”

RCMP Sergeant Kim Chamberland said the force could not comment on whether it is investigating the APT31 hacking. The Chinese hacking group with ties to the CCP government in Beijing has been nicknamed Advanced Persistent Threat 31, or “APT31.”

“The RCMP is actively leveraging all tools at its disposal to combat foreign interference,” she said. “As this is an ongoing situation, the RCMP cannot provide further comment at this time.”

When asked by The Globe, CSIS did not explain why it never told the legislators about the targeting by China. However, CSIS spokesman Eric Balsam noted in an e-mail that the spy agency has generally been telling Canadians, including MPs and senators, about China’s foreign-interference operations.

“CSIS has been warning Canadians that the PRC and other state-sponsored actors conduct foreign interference targeting elected officials – from all parties, and all levels of government, across Canada,” he said. “CSIS is committed to equipping elected officials to identify foreign interference threats, including cyber-related activities and take measures to ensure their personal safety, including by providing briefings.”