The UGLY Chinese Canadian blog’s email IN box lit up like a Christmas tree today.

We received over a couple dozen emails expressing concern over a CBC tv newsclip yesterday regarding “foreign espionage” here in Canada. Here are a few snippets from the emails we received:

Subject: sino-phobia / csis interview on cbc

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/06/22/spying-csis.html

did all of you catch Brian Stewart’s interview with CSIS head Fadden?  if i didn’t know any better, i could have sworn it was CTV’s Campus Giveaway all over again.

right before the G8-G20, Fadden makes the claim that at least 2 provincial MLAs and 2 provinces are being groomed as ‘agents of influence’, and that at the municipal level China has also infiltrated govt.  he also repeats long-standing accusations that the Confucius Institute is really a recruitment centre for the Chinese govt.

the interview mentions that ‘1/2 dozen’ countries’ have been aggressive in their espionage, tho no countries are ever named. the only one that is identified by the interviewer indirectly with acquiescence from Fadden is China.

this morning on the 6 am CBC news net, Stewart followed up by saying that if provincial ministers became too cozy that it would mean countries like China would have access to our resources and Canada would ‘lose out’ because then it wouldn’t be able to secure higher prices …

All this seems rather odd to me – because isn’t it in the DocZone Tar Sands documentary that it is pointed out the *U.S.* is the country of influence who has successfully siphoned off all our oil to the south – that provinces in Central Canada now rely on unstable countries in south america to provide energy ???    Given the US grip on Canada, it seems unlikely that a major pipeline to China will happen soon, and if it does, it will be with a lot of resistance/ influence from our neighbours south.       Geez, you wonder how much ‘handed-down’ intelligence (words used in the CBC interview) that Fadden and CSIS actually rely upon from the US ?

Whatever happened to due process in Canada?

What is bothersome is that Stewart, now retired and normally a reliable journalist, made no effort to get the other side of the story – why not interview the Vancouver politicians and reps in BC and find out what they have to say about these un-identified accusations?

[…]

Here are some other remarks, gleaned from our email discussions:

I got the same feeling as you when I watched the report. Were there not even shots of Chinatown? This issue could potentially be as serious as “Campus Giveaway” of 30 years go. By one stroke, CSIS has painted the entire Chinese Canadian community as potential Chinese spies and having doubtful loyalty to Canada. CSIS and the CBC need to name names, so the alleged can defend themselves. McCarthyism is alive and well in 2010.

It is not surprising that these allegations come on the eve of Chinese president Hu’s visit to Canada. I am sure there are anti-China elements in the bureaucracy and government that want to sabotage good relations with China.

I would like to see CSIS come to the same conclusion with other countries.

[…]

Here’s one from an unhappy Canadian:

ya know, there’s a lot of validity ie. lot of truth in that cbc report.

frankly, i’m too tired to keep battling.  We win the W5… and the immigrant chinks take advantage of our ground work… fill up the university spots with their spoiled brats, while we canadian borns get bumped off, rub their eyes and wonder WTF?

We win the headtax apology effort… and the immigrant chinks hog up the headlines… and photo op with PM.

I for one, am tired of canadian borns lke you and I doing all the activism and hard work, only to have the quasi canadians from china, hk, taiwan and other foreign opportunists wait and suck up our credit.

I’m just gonna pop open a couple of cans of beer, watch some hockey game re-runs and keep on flying the finger at all the friggen chinatown “leaders”… the same assholes who  let chinatown be the shithole it is today.

Let’s see what our so-called community leaders and gate keepers have to say about this.

what is ‘China’ ?   a nation to always be demonized?  at the same time the Alberta govt gives away its oil to our American cousins?

if national security is an issue, sure then call it a security issue.   but  using innuendo without naming names?   if that happened in the non-Asian community, there’d be an uproar.

but since chinese are really ‘canadian’ we just swallow it like we did 100 years ago.   enough is enough.

[…]

Chinese are always easy targets because they look ‘different’.    We (asians) are 10% of Canada now.   We ARE the mainstream !!   so cbc and csis, etc, should get used to it and defend US, not the other way around (let the U.S. and Britain, dictate our foreign affairs policy for us).

The email sure generated a lot of replies ! ….       Hot topic, right now! ….

And this just in from CBC news site:

BC Premier Gordon Campbell blasts CSIS chief over allegations

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell says allegations by the head of CSIS that some B.C. politicians and municipal officials are under the influence of foreign governments are shocking and irresponsible.

Campbell says Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Richard Fadden’s statements are unprofessional and call into question the inner workings of Canada’s spy agency.

“To cast aspersions and doubt on people in public office — we don’t know which cabinet ministers and which provinces he’s talking about — but to say that kind of thing at a public function and then release it to the media without talking to people directly involved is to me … I’m frankly incredulous by it,” he said.

[…]

CSIS head retreats

Meanwhile, Fadden appears to be backing away from his controversial comments.

At this point, CSIS has not deemed the cases to be of sufficient concern to bring them to the attention of provincial authorities.

Allegations made in CBC interview

Fadden did not say which countries are suspected of being involved in the practice, but in his interview with CBC he pointed to a statement by former CSIS boss Jim Judd that the intelligence agency spends half its counter-espionage budget dealing with China.