Public Safety Minister Evades Responding to Questions About Reports of Unofficial Chinese Police Stations in Canada

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino gave no response when pressed by Conservative MP Michael Chong on what the Liberal government is going to do regarding allegations that communist China is operating unofficial overseas police stations on Canadian soil.

“The government’s priorities are descending into farce,” Chong said during question period in the House of Commons on Sept. 6.

“They won’t allow U.S. officers into Canada to reopen Nexus offices even though we have an agreement and the United States is an ally. Meanwhile, Iranian officers freely come to this country to intimidate Canadians because [the government] won’t list the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], and now we find out that police officers from the People’s Republic of China are operating out of three offices illegally open in Canada, intimidating Canadians.

“So what is the government doing about these illegal police stations in Toronto?”

Conservative MP Michael Chong rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 13, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Mendicino did not respond to the question, but commented on the ongoing protests in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 after being arrested for not wearing her hijab properly.

“I want to be unequivocally clear that we continue to condemn in the most strong terms, the brutal killing of Mahsa Amini in Iran. We will continue to ensure that we are taking every appropriate action for those responsible for their transgressions. We stand with the women, we stand with everyone who is advocating human rights,” the minister said.

‘Clear Track Record’

Reports of China’s expanding “overseas police service stations” were brought to public attention after Spain-based human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders published its investigative report last month, titled “110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild.”

The report identified a total of 54 Chinese overseas police stations in 30 countries, including three in Toronto at the time of publication. The stations are all under the jurisdiction of two local-level police services in China—the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, and the Qingtian County police in Zhejiang Province, the authors wrote.

Peter Dahlin, founder and director of Safeguard Defenders and co-author of the report, told The Epoch Times previously that in addition to the three stations in Toronto—two in Markham and one in Scarborough, whose locations were published by a Chinese state media outlet—there are likely other unofficial Chinese police stations either in existence or being established in Canada, though they have yet to be discovered.

Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus followed up on the issue, pressing Mendicino to confirm if a report by the National Post on similar allegations is true given that the Chinese regime has maintained that those stations were meant to help expats with administrative tasks such as renewing their driving licences.

“The Chinese communist regime is not in the habit of telling the truth. This isn’t the first time we or the prime minister have heard about Chinese communists harassing Canadians. Is the National Post story accurate, and without the rhetoric, can the prime minister tell us what he’s going to do about it?” Paul-Hus asked.

“[We have a] clear track record of providing all of the tools that are necessary to our national security apparatus to combat the kind of foreign interference and threats—threats to national security that my colleague across the aisle talks about,” Mendicino replied.

‘Waiting for Evidence’

Testifying before the parliamentary Canada–China committee on Sept. 4, Weldon Epp, director general for Global Affairs Canada’s North Asia and Oceania Bureau, said that an investigation into the allegations has started.

“We are waiting for evidence, not just from media reports, but from operations underway.”

Epp also confirmed there is no bilateral treaty with China that would allow the Chinese police to reside in Canada and open their police stations on Canadian soil when asked by Chong during the meeting.

Aileen Calverley, co-founder and trustee of the human rights advocacy group Hong Kong Watch, who also spoke at the committee meeting, said it is “very shocking” to learn of the alleged unofficial police centres established by the Chinese regime.

“They claim that they just help the Chinese citizens to renew their passports. They don’t need that because they have their own embassy,” she said.

“They use that actually to intimidate the Chinese citizens … [and] to scare them to go back to China to face trial and then threaten their families. But now with the police station actually in Markham, they can intimidate people like us. I’ve been living in Canada for many decades. Now I feel frightened.”