Trudeau invited Chinese troops to train at Canadian military bases

[shawn5o]

The article below is from Rebel news (I'm still on the fence about Ezra's news site) but if true, it makes more distrustful of our current PM


SECRET MILITARY DOCUMENTS: Trudeau invited Chinese troops to train at Canadian military bases
By Ezra Levant | December 09, 2020

Justin Trudeau invited China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to send its troops for cold weather training at CFB Petawawa in Ontario — and Trudeau raged at the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) for cancelling the training after China kidnapped Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

This is only one of many bombshell revelations in The China Files, a 34-page access to information document released by the Trudeau government to Rebel News, seen below.

Documents that normally would have been completely blacked out by government censors were instead greyed out — the documents remain completely readable. Rebel News has chosen to black out a very small portion that would otherwise compromise the safety of an individual.

How we got these secret documents:

In April of 2019, Rebel News first wrote to the government asking for any records corroborating a Russian report that Canada had sent a delegation to China for the 70th anniversary celebrations for the PLA Navy — a propaganda exercise held just months after the kidnapping of the two Michaels. The Trudeau government delayed replying to Rebel News for 19 months, but when they finally did, they not only confirmed their attendance at that macabre event, but listed other exchanges between the PLA and the CAF. Those include training Chinese commanders at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, as well as other military facilities in Kingston. Chinese military participants included 1- and 2-star generals and an entire contingent who would learn Canadian cold weather military tactics.

More at https://www.rebelnews.com/the_china_files?utm_campaign=el_chinafiles1_12_9_2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel

 

[MarkOttawa]

Globe and Mail story today:

Global Affairs objected to Canadian military decision to cancel training with China’s People’s Liberation Army

The department of Global Affairs pushed back against a decision last year by Canada’s top soldier to cut back on interactions with China’s People’s Liberation Army, warning Beijing might consider this a reprisal for the arbitrary arrest of two Canadians.

Government documents, seen by The Globe and Mail and marked secret and for Canadian eyes only, show that officials at the highest levels of Global Affairs were alarmed that General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, had cancelled winter military exercises with the PLA in 2019.

The United States had raised concerns about joint military exercises that could benefit the PLA, according to the documents.

“Should Canada make any significant reductions in its military engagement with China, China will likely read this as a retaliatory move related to the Meng Wanzhou case,” a February, 2019, memo to Ian Shugart, then deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, outlining the case for a letter he would be sending to Jody Thomas, deputy minister of the Department of National Defence.

A senior government official said Gen. Vance, on the urgings of the U.S., cancelled winter exercises with the PLA and later all military interactions. Gen. Vance did allow Canadian Armed Forces personnel to compete at the 2019 Military World Games held in Wuhan, China, that October. The Globe is not identifying the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about national security issues.

Mr. Shugart is now Clerk of the Privy Council, the country’s top bureaucrat, who reports directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The memo was written just months after Canada-China relations went into a tailspin. Beijing had locked up two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, in apparent retribution for Ottawa’s arrest of Ms. Meng, chief financial officer at flagship Chinese tech firm Huawei Technologies, in December, 2018. Canada had been acting on a U.S. extradition request.

The documents were released through access-to-information law, although the department of Global Affairs later said they had not been adequately censored before release owing to human error. Alexandre Drago, Global Affairs’ access-to-information director, asked The Globe not to report from the unexpurgated documents, saying they contain “confidential and secret classified information that should not have been released outside of government” and information that is “injurious to Canada’s national security, national defence and international relations,” as well as to individuals. The Globe is selectively reporting on the documents.

The senior government official said Gen. Vance allowed Canadian Armed Forces personnel to compete at the 2019 Military World Games when there were no objections from Canada’s allies in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group: Australia, Britain, the U.S. and New Zealand.

According to the memo to Mr. Shugart, the U.S. Pentagon had already pressed the Canadian Armed Forces to rethink interactions with the PLA. By the time it was written, the Canadian military had elected to cancel Chinese participation in winter survival training at CFB Petawawa. It was to have included six to eight People’s Liberation Army members.

The memo described it as a decision taken “unilaterally” by the Canadian military, apparently meaning the Forces did not consult Global Affairs first.

“We understand that [this cancellation] was driven principally by concerns voiced by the U.S. that the training could result in unintended and undesired knowledge transfer to the PLA,” the memo said.

“Unilateral decisions to postpone and/or cancel previously agreed DND/CAF co-operation with the PLA risk being interpreted by China or others in an unintended (and unhelpful) way. [This] could also damage Canada’s long-term defence and security relationship with China,” the memo to Mr. Shugart said.

The department told Mr. Shugart it was likely the Chinese would react negatively to scaling back engagement between the PLA and the Canadian forces because scrapping interactions between military is one tool Beijing uses to express displeasure.

“China has used reductions in military engagements with the U.S. in recent years to signal its dissatisfaction with the U.S.-China trade relationship,” the memo said. “Such reductions have included reported cancelled visits by senior military personnel and cancelled port visits.”

A draft copy of the letter Mr. Shugart was to send to Ms. Thomas includes this caveat about the fate of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor.

“While resolving the consular cases is the government of Canada’s top priority, ensuring a certain amount of continuity in other parts of the Canada-China relationship remains important,” the draft letter said.

“Given the heightened scrutiny, any decision by Canada to reduce/cut ties should be carefully considered to avoid sending any unhelpful or unintended messages,” it said.

But the Shugart letter cautioned Ms. Thomas: “Canada does not want to be the partner that is reducing normal bilateral interactions.”

The deputy minister of Foreign Affairs asked the Department of Defence to check with Global Affairs before cancelling or postponing any future engagements with the People’s Liberation Army.

“This should follow consultations with Global Affairs and be paired with careful communications strategies to avoid becoming inadvertently linked to the current situation.”

Michael Chong, the Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic, and James Bezan, the defence critic, said in a joint statement that the documents show a “stunning lack of leadership” from Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal government.

“Clearly, the Prime Minister and Liberal ministers are more concerned about how Beijing might react than in defending Canadian interests. The Liberal government has become so timid that it can’t even say no to Chinese soldiers arriving on our territory.”

A calendar of coming engagements for 2019 between the Canadian military and China’s PLA listed up to 12 events, including PLA soldiers attending the Canadian Security Studies Program at Canadian Forces College in Toronto and a United Nations peacekeeping course at the Canadian-army affiliated Peace Support Training Centre in Kingston. It also included the delegation of athletes for the Military World Games in Wuhan and delegates to attend a PLA National Defence University International Symposium in China.

Canada sent 114 athletes, 57 coaches and support staff to the Military World Games.

The documents released by Global Affairs under access-to-information law also include internal deliberations about how China would react if Canada sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait.

One page appears to be military intelligence from the U.S. Department of Defense marked “Secret // released to Canada, FVEY,” meaning approved for release to Canada and other countries that are members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network. This page includes a detailed discussion of how China and its military vessels reacted to a French frigate traversing the Taiwan Strait in April, 2019.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-global-affairs-objected-to-canadian-military-decision-to-cancel/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The military is in the right on this one. Unless we planned on arresting and holding some PLA soldiers on trumped up charges during the excercise.

 

[Navy_Pete]

This is why I hate the ATI process; you send over confidential, sensitive documents over to some random person with things highlighted for being censored prior to release, but have no control over what finally goes out to the public. Hopefully the ATI cell that handled this gets investigated for releasing five eyes level secret documents.

 

[PuckChaser]

Hopefully the ATI cell that handled this gets investigated for releasing five eyes level secret documents.

A lot of them are marked SECRET // CANADIAN EYES ONLY. Much bigger deal that SECRET FVEY.

 

[Haggis]

The military is in the right on this one.

If this caused Canada to inconvenience the Chinese, the PMO probably doesn't share this opinion.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Documents that normally would have been completely blacked out by government censors were instead greyed out

heh. Yea that'll happen when the ol' black ink runs low.


Sure is a shame we didn't get to train the Chinese army how to be better killers defenders of democracy.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

If this caused Canada to inconvenience the Chinese, the PMO probably doesn't share this opinion.

Yes well my opinion of said PM and the PMO is not printable here.

 

[Blackadder1916]

. . .  Chinese participation in winter survival training at CFB Petawawa. It was to have included six to eight People’s Liberation Army members.

“We understand that [this cancellation] was driven principally by concerns voiced by the U.S. that the training could result in unintended and undesired knowledge transfer to the PLA,” the memo said.

The political diplomatic issues aside, what highly sensitive information has been included in Basic and/or Advanced Winter Warfare training in the years since I first did them and the multiple times afterwards before my retirement?  Is there now a special secret way to put up a 10 man, light a stove or has the avoidance of yellow snow been discontinued?  Can you even say "yellow" snow when instructing Chinese or is it political incorrect?

 

[Haggis]

  Can you even say "yellow" snow when instructing Chinese or is it political incorrect?

You, sir, owe me a new keyboard.

 

[MarkOttawa]

The political diplomatic issues aside, what highly sensitive information has been included in Basic and/or Advanced Winter Warfare training in the years since I first did them and the multiple times afterwards before my retirement?  Is there now a special secret way to put up a 10 man, light a stove or has the avoidance of yellow snow been discontinued?  Can you even say "yellow" snow when instructing Chinese or is it political incorrect?

Why, at any point and especially after the Two Michaels had been imprisoned as political hostages, would Canada want to do anything that might in any way enhance the PLA's capabilities? This, from the Globe and Mail story, is the very midsummer of delusional diplomatic madness (I write as an erstwhile Canadian dip):

"[This] could also damage Canada’s long-term defence and security relationship with China,” the memo to Mr. Shugart said...

THINK ABOUT WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THAT "DEFENCE AND SECURITY RELATIONSHIP". Nutso to the max.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[OldSolduer]

You don’t be telling a potential enemy anything. The PM is a useful fool

 

[Cloud Cover]

Perhaps Global Affairs was planning a GBA+ conforming honey trap and DND xnayed it.

 

[PuckChaser]

The political diplomatic issues aside, what highly sensitive information has been included in Basic and/or Advanced Winter Warfare training in the years since I first did them and the multiple times afterwards before my retirement?  Is there now a special secret way to put up a 10 man, light a stove or has the avoidance of yellow snow been discontinued?  Can you even say "yellow" snow when instructing Chinese or is it political incorrect?

Less about the material they'd learn but the facilities they'd have access to. Driving around CFB Petawawa would give them the ability to conduct visual and electronic surveillance on an entire Bde plus a good portion of CANSOFCOM. You better believe if we allow PLA troops onto our Bases as soon as they go home there will be targeted cyber attacks on our networks (Wifi and hardline) and social engineering attacks on key individual's social media platforms now that they can be tied to a specific base and unit. They would also learn about how we conduct our training to be able to put out more plausible disinformation campaigns both domestically and towards our expeditionary ops.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Less about the material they'd learn but the facilities they'd have access to. Driving around CFB Petawawa would give them the ability to conduct visual and electronic surveillance on an entire Bde plus a good portion of CANSOFCOM. You better believe if we allow PLA troops onto our Bases as soon as they go home there will be targeted cyber attacks on our networks (Wifi and hardline) and social engineering attacks on key individual's social media platforms now that they can be tied to a specific base and unit. They would also learn about how we conduct our training to be able to put out more plausible disinformation campaigns both domestically and towards our expeditionary ops.

I’m with PuckChaser in this one. They will never pass a chance to sniff and surveil.

 

[Haggis]

I’m with PuckChaser in this one. They will never pass a chance to sniff and surveil.

A key enabler for successful control measures in an admirable basic dictatorship.

 

[blacktriangle]

Less about the material they'd learn but the facilities they'd have access to. Driving around CFB Petawawa would give them the ability to conduct visual and electronic surveillance on an entire Bde plus a good portion of CANSOFCOM. You better believe if we allow PLA troops onto our Bases as soon as they go home there will be targeted cyber attacks on our networks (Wifi and hardline) and social engineering attacks on key individual's social media platforms now that they can be tied to a specific base and unit. They would also learn about how we conduct our training to be able to put out more plausible disinformation campaigns both domestically and towards our expeditionary ops.

This. Canada is so open that we already make a soft target for foreign actors. I'm not sure why we'd want to give any potential adversary the "icing on the cake".

I also don't think we should discount the possibility of foreign countries having sleeper agents or cells operating within our country, and they could utilize any information gleaned to support sabotage or other kinetic operations in a time of war.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I don't think China cares what they were sending people over for.
I think it was all PR for them. The image of China and Canada training together.


Speaking of Global Affairs under François-Philippe Champagne, he's the guy who had 2 or 3 mortgages with the bank of China right?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

China has already riddled us with spies both active and passive. They have put together a formidable intelligence machine that allows them to piece together information collected from passive assets (willing and unwilling Chinese that have worked/travelled here and have accessed low grade info) so as to direct their active assets to key sources. I seen the low level stuff myself at SHOT, where pretty Chinese girls chat you up and quickly dump you when your not doing anything important, moving on to the next guy and the next. I can imagine the pure military hardware shows have even more girls working the circuit. 

 

[CBH99]

Can you even say "yellow" snow when instructing Chinese or is it political incorrect?

:rofl:

Okay, you won the internet today