He said it, he got slammed and then he backed away from the issue of foreign governments holding influence over provincial and municipal politicians – but was Fadden incorrect, or jumping the gun?
Campbell thought so, and came out swinging – see the post below – although some have said: ” He doth protest too much!” Today, however, CBC is reporting that senior intelligence sources are telling them that not only was Fadden right on the money, but also that the head Fed-Con himself, Stephen Harper, has known about this all along…. from the CBC :
Sources tell CBC News the highest levels of the Canadian government have known for years that foreign countries have been trying to win influence over Canadian politicians and public servants.
That information comes a day after CSIS director Richard Fadden said he had never warned officials close to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that some provincial cabinet ministers may be under the sway of countries like China — even though he told the CBC earlier this week the agency was discussing the issue with the Privy Council Office.
Sources tell the CBC the PCO was well aware of those concerns, even if it hadn’t been told the details of who was involved.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, the minister responsible for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada’s spy agency, refused to discuss Fadden’s bombshell allegations.
“I’m afraid I can’t comment on any operational issues involving CSIS,” Toews said Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with CBC News earlier this week, Fadden said Canada’s spy agency suspects that some municipal politicians and cabinet ministers in two provinces are being swayed by their connections to foreign governments.
China was one of the countries Fadden mentioned.
The remarkable comments sparked outrage from some provincial politicians and have led some observers to call for Fadden to resign.
But senior intelligence sources say the highest levels of the Canadian government were “absolutely” aware of the issue.
“These problems are very well-known,” one source said. “This information did not blindside the government.”
Fadden ‘not wrong’: source
A source suggested the prime minister was personally aware of the issue of foreign agents trying to win influence over politicians and bureaucrats — even if he didn’t know the details.
“The prime minister is strongly of a view that this is a problem,” a source said.
The source said Harper has an appetite for intelligence beyond that of his predecessors. Intelligence briefers now routinely provide the prime minister with detailed written reports, in addition to their regular verbal briefings.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office denied it was warned by CSIS of any specific agents of influence in provincial cabinets. Fadden himself later issued a retraction on that key point.
But sources tell the CBC the issue was very likely “verbally briefed ” to intelligence staff who work for the prime minister.
Fadden “had to swallow hard,” a source said, “but he’s not wrong.”
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=24682300
Clearly, there would have to be something substantial evidence of such an allegation, or someone like Fadden wouldn’t be out there telling the whole world about it, WHILE the G summits are underway. While some will say this is nothing but speculation and conjecture, I say Brava! to Fadden for having the cojones to tell it like it is. The only question now is, who are they watching, and for how long?
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
And wasn’t it truly amazing how Campbell at first refused to comment. Then after an all night session with the spin doctors, “comes out swinging”. He was also the loudest protester, demanding more info. Why would he want more? You can bet the farm that if the Big Fed Con knew about it, so did Campbell. Whay does he want more info? So they can further spin the situation. With the help I might add, of the MSM in BC.
As for Harper: “A source suggested the prime minister was personally aware of the issue of foreign agents trying to win influence over politicians and bureaucrats — even if he didn’t know the details”
Then this:”The source said Harper has an appetite for intelligence beyond that of his predecessors. Intelligence briefers now routinely provide the prime minister with detailed written reports, in addition to their regular verbal briefings.”
So I now ask “Is the PMO Lying?”
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Looking at this whole events public nature says Fadden knew he was right and may have interference so he went public , now i want to know lets hope more info leaks out and why is Harper even involved Csis should be independant of any politicos anytime.
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My theory is somewhat different. Fadden is a Harper appointee. I think that Fadden’s revelation on CBC was initiated by Harper as a signal. Who that signal was intended for is up to question. The Chinese leader? Canadian MPs as a warning? Provincial Premiers?
J. Edgar Hoover was notorious for his FBI files on people he wanted to manipulate. Is Harper (through Fadden) doing the same thing?
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The other Premiers have rallied around Campbell, even NDPers:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1188944.html
It’s no secret that the first ministers are something like an old boys club….or maybe the paradigm is more like musk oxen, drawing in a circle and flashing their horns with authority when one of them is accused of something all of them could very well be guilty of.
But Double-D, as he’s known out here, has missed the point of CSIS’ investigations. This is not a McCarthyite or xenophobic witchhunt – the assumption he’s made, as has the media (which has played up the theme) is that MLAs and other politicians of “foreign extraction” are to be suspected…..but that’s not the case at all. Most Chinese Canadian politicians, for example, are decidedly anti-Communist and while they know how to tango with Beijing they’re not interested in having the Middle Kingdom as a dancing partner or a dominatrix.
East Indian politicians are often Sikhs or Muslims and while they do work hard to represent the interests of other South Asians, they scrupulously avoid allowing themselves to be seen as agents of their home country; they work hard at being Canadian, and working for Canadians. Proving themselves as Canadians .
The politicians that CSIS is talking about, to a man (or woman) are most likely to be money-hungry and amoral, or just gullible and easily misled, and it’s not about skin colour or ethnic origin. It’s about business, it’s about clout, or it can just be about xenophilia – being more impressed by another culture/country than respectful or considerate of one’s own.
Somewhere in Mary’s blog someone made a reference to Kevin Falcon (or was it Colin Hansen?) as a “great friend of China”, or “China’s man in the BC cabinet”. And Hansen, by Dexter’s logic and that being touted by the racial-excuse-making tub-thumpers, should be suspected of being an agent for Norway. Not that Norway doesn’t have major economic interests in BC, and I’m actually not certain of Hansen’s relationship to the fish-farming industry, or whether or not he’s had overtures from the Norwegian government to behave like a good little Norwegian. I doubt it, but the same logic that is pointing fingers (by the media, and by quips like Dexter’s, but not by CSIS) at East Asian and South Asian politicians should indict Hansen as an agent of Norway.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, while China is who the controversy is centering around, it really needs to be directed at the United States, or more particularly at “certain political elements” and associated moneymongers supporting that faction; to whit, the GOP and the hard right . The Democrats are too principled to mess in our system or to influence our politicians (more’s the pity).
So there’s a lot of deflection and division going on, based on a wile mis-take of what Fadden was talking about. All to divert attention from the obvious equations involved, and the fact that money has no colour, nor does corruption.
I have far more faith in our visible minority politicians than I do in our invisible minority ones. It’s funny that Dexter would say “we have a lot of Scots”, given Campbell’s clan heritage. But it’s not Scotland that Campbell has been pandering to – it’s China, and the “shadow government” of the US…..
BTW shuffled away amongst all the Olympic counter-propaganda was a factoid from years ago, that our own Olympic expenses were being artificially jacked because China bought up construction materials, not just from us, but from a purposely deflated work construction materials market, in order to stockpile them for their own Olympics projects. Volume-buying, like Wal-mart, by a country with artificially low currency rates and that equaly artificial imbalance of trade – all that helped contribute to our own Olympic overruns. Somebody should have been wise to it, and in fact the Liberals were warned, as I remember the article saying…..instead timber and coal rates were lowered and special trade deals, including the “most favoured nation” status for Chinese tourism, brought in…..
The closure of the Falun Gong protest booth by the Chinese consulate in the days of Mayor Sam is trivial by comparison.
But, well, China hasn’t pulled anything on us like US capital interests have – BC Rail, BC Hydro/IPPs, Maximus, BC Ferries, Kiewit’s lockdown on construction contracts, the superferries going to Washington Group, the hospital contracts, the new mining legislation, and more and more and more. Follow the money, follow the money…..China would LIKE to be the major economic and political behind-the-scenes player in BC that the US already IS. We’re a major national security interest of the US – not the least because we’re the land corridor connecting Alaska to the Lower 48…..
And, word is, it was the DEA who coordinated and led the charge on investigating drug links into the BC Legislature, wasn’t it? Not the Chinese Public Security Bureau…..(how ironic, that, no?) And it was the US, not China, who contributed police and other security personnel to the ISU during the Olympics, no?
Maybe the people to take the BC Rail fiasco to, since the RCMP aren’t doing their job, might in fact be CSIS, given the role of foreign-owned corporations in acquiring operational infrastructure in the form of crown corporations and also services once delivered by ministries…..
Look at it this way; how many Chinese-state-owned or Chinese corporations have subsidiaries that made significant campaign donations to BC politicians? And how many United States-owned corporations have subsidiaries that made significant campaign donations to BC politicians?
CSIS are you listening??
The media are trying to shut this down, as are the other Premiers like Dexter. Where it could lead is too uncomfortable, who it could turf from power too awkward. Legal measures brought in to prevent it in future will cramp the politicians’ style (which is autocratic and secretive).
And, well, it could damage relations with China and/or the United States, and we can’t have that can we? Best to comply and play along…..and that’s the nature of the relationship; dependency….another term associated with being a colony, and not sovereign in the slightest. The threat of economic retaliation if any economic sneakiness were to be exposed effectively keeps the latter from being admitted to.
it’s not like we believe anything else Campbell has ever said, either. You’d think Dexter, as an NDPer, might be a bit more aware of that.
It could be, since Fadden is a Harper appointee, that the targeting of China (not undeserved) is a way to deflect from investigation of the mounting levels of US economic influence and political clout (and “apesmanship”). Find someone else to point t he finger at, basically, to keep the flying fickle finger of fate from spilling all the beans that really need spilling…..
Gave something Gordo to grandstand about. Though I’m still laughing about that remark about Fadden being “unprofessional”, from a man who clearly has no scruples whatsoever…..
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Exactly Skookum…I damn near choked when I read that “unprofessional” remark. I really enjoyed a good chuckle thinking about the pot calling the kettle black.
Quite simply – the “male” doth protest too much, too fast, and too loudly. Mr. Fadden sure got the attention of those the message was intended for hmmm?
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I still believe in “What Goes Round Comes Round” 7+ years
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Wayne: At least in Canada there’s no statute of limitations….there is however, unlimited apathy
Leah: I rather wish Fadden had kept his mouth shut until they had enough to file charges…..no doubt there’s a lot of document-burning and phone-record and email deleting going on right now…..
CSIS was also only talking about foreign GOVERNMENTS. Not foreign COMPANIES. In the case of China, there’s considerable overlap of course.
And I’ll wager toonies to timbits that when the list of the culprits is finally produced, nearly all of them that are on it won’t be foreign-born Canadians as the media and the politicians are currently hiding behind as a way to counter-attack CSIS.
In fact, I hope Fadden does exactly that – releases all the documentation and brings it into the public arena, to put the lie to the lies that are being circulated to cover up.
BTW those tar sands-laden pipelines and tankers that everyone is all worried about are not for the US, since it’s easy enough to build pipelines directly into the US. The other part of that equation is that China owns or has rights on about 1/3 or the tar sands……so my guess is that the other province that’s being talked about is Alberta. That’s fairly obvious, no doubt; but also another case where the much bigger elephant in the room is the GOP…..not that the GOP is a country (yet).
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“He doth protest too much” “sparked outrage”…I think he just hit a nerve!
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the prime minister was personally aware of the issue of foreign agents trying to win influence over politicans and bureaucrats — even if he didn’t know the details for he defined those demons as liberals
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Campbell has made trips to China. Some of our mills went to China, our raw logs go to China. Campbell has cost our mill workers 30.000 job losses. Campbell is trying to bring, China’s dirty oil tankers into our pristine coast. Campbell is selling us out to China and the USA. Campbell’s Liberal government, is much the same as China’s. Campbell, is an out and out dictator. That is obvious, by his, treatment towards the BC citizens. Too dam bad if we protest, he does it anyway. Went right ahead and flooded the most valuable farmland in Canada. The Peace country, is flooded, to give Arnold S from California the Hydro. What kind of a fool floods prime farmland? He wasn’t going to sell the BC Rail either, but old dictator Campbell, gave us the finger and did it anyway. The HST wasn’t on his radar, it went to the Federal House, in too short a time. BC is the most corrupt province in Canada. Campbell, is the worst premier in Canadian history.
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I have been in touch with Laila in regard to the previous comment (now deleted), and we would like to say that any threats against individuals written about on this blog will not be tolerated.
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thanks for getting on that comment for me, I appreciate your taking the initiative to get it done while I was away.. darling daughter ” Intern” … haha.
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Gordie has been selling BC out to Ottawa, China, whoever will deal with him till hell won’t have it. A complete sleazeball. It would be wonderful (but too much to ask, I know) to see him dragged off to prison someday, however … *sigh*
At least his party’s going to be wiped out in the next election. So there’s that.
http://davidinnorthburnablog.blogspot.com/2009/03/you-know-ive-always-been-dreamer.html
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