MPs to Study Chinese Hack Targeting Parliamentarians in Committee

Committee to Investigate Chinese Hacking Targeting MPs

May 9, 2024 TruthUSA

MPs agreed unanimously on May 9 to investigate China’s cyberattacks against parliamentarians through a House of Commons committee.

The motion for the investigation was initiated by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who revealed on April 29 that he and 17 other Canadian parliamentarians were targeted in 2021 by a Beijing-backed hacker group referred to as Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31).

Mr. Genuis noted that the cyberattack on Canadian parliamentarians was part of APT31’s broader hacking campaign against members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). IPAC is an organization comprised of cross-party legislators from various countries seeking to change how democratic countries deal with Beijing.

The APT31 attacks gained public attention after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment on March 25, charging seven Chinese nationals linked to the hacker group. The indictment revealed that the group had spent approximately 14 years targeting critics of the Chinese regime, both in the U.S. and abroad, as well as businesses and political figures, with the goal of furthering Beijing’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.

Mr. Genuis, along with Liberal MP John McKay, also a co-chair of IPAC, raised concerns in an April 29 statement. They noted that despite warnings from U.S. intelligence authorities about APT31’s attacks dating back to 2022, the Canadian government did not inform the affected parliamentarians of the threat.

“Canadian legislators should have been informed as soon as possible, especially given the progressive nature of this attack,” the MPs wrote. “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.”

Targeting Personal Email

In an April 30 statement to The Epoch Times, Mathieu Gravel, spokesperson for the House of Commons Speaker’s Office, said the administration had “determined that the risk-mitigation measures in place had successfully prevented any attack,” adding that “There were no cybersecurity impacts to any Members or their communications.”

‘Chilling Effect’

During the May 9 House of Commons debate, several MPs among the 18 targeted by APT31 voiced their concerns about the broader impacts of the Chinese cyberattacks on Canadians.

Conservative MP Tom Kmiec said these attacks on parliamentarians directly impact diaspora groups in Canada who have fled the Chinese regime.

“This has a chilling effect on the diaspora groups in Canada in their interactions with members of parliament. So it’s a direct impact on our parliamentary duties and our parliamentary privileges to ensure we can do this work on behalf of Canadians,” he said.

Fellow Tory MP James Bezan, the party’s national defence critic, echoed the sentiment, noting that the 18 parliamentarians were targeted not only for their involvement in IPAC but also for their crucial roles in engaging with diaspora communities in Canada. He highlighted that they frequently handle emails from diaspora groups containing “sensitive information” related to human rights repression by the Chinese communist regime, the Russian Federation, and Iran.

“Those diaspora communities send us emails, and if this APT31 hack had been successful, that sensitive information of the diaspora communities, of individuals who have come to Canada seeking asylum, and now call Canada home, their identities could have been jeopardized and could have been even more targeted,” he said.

“This is not just an attack on our parliamentary privilege, not just an attack on us as parliamentarians, but an attack on all Canadians in our democratic institutions because we do have dictatorships and authoritarian regimes like the People’s Republic of China that are trying to undermine our democratic institutions and target Chinese nationals right here in Canada.”

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.

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