Followed by strangers, families threatened: They say they’re being harassed in Canada for their human rights work — and that Ottawa is doing nothing to stop it
As an inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections resumed public hearings on Wednesday, advocates from Canada’s Iranian, Russian, Uyghur, Sikh and Chinese communities laid out the intimidation they say they grapple with on a daily basis
OTTAWA — Followed by cars with blacked-out license plates, or by strangers on motorcycles. Phones hacked, and their email used to send threatening messages. Family and friends threatened, imprisoned or even killed — all in retaliation for their advocacy, in Canada, for human rights.
As an inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections resumed public hearings on Wednesday, advocates from Canada’s Iranian, Russian, Uyghur, Sikh and Chinese communities laid out the intimidation they say they grapple with on a daily basis.
Their stories set the tone for the next three weeks of commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s probe into the extent to which Russia, China and India may have meddled in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, what Canada’s security, bureaucratic and political leadership knew about those allegations, and what the federal government chose to do — or did not choose to do — with that information.
According to those who spoke to the commission Wednesday, what Ottawa has done is very little at all. Several criticized the government for a lack of meaningful policy changes, criminal charges or even acknowledgment of the extent to which acts of intimidation by foreign players is having an impact on them in Canada.
Mehmet Tohti, an advocate for the China’s Uyghur Muslim community, told the commission about being warned by a Foreign Affairs bureaucrat in Montreal that he was being followed home — and that nothing could be done to stop it.
Tohti also said he received a call the week before Parliament was to vote on a motion calling for the resettlement of 10,000 Uyghur and Turkic refugees in Canada. Someone who identified themselves as Chinese state police informed him that his mother and two sisters were dead. The implication? “This was the cost you have to pay if you continue to advocate,” he said.
