The February 1986 intelligence report warned that Beijing was using overt political tactics and covert operations to influence and exploit the Chinese diaspora in Canada. China is said to have employed new, potentially more powerful techniques to achieve these goals.

The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the report entitled “China/Canada: Interference in the Sino-Canadian Community” prepared by the Federal Intelligence Advisory Committee.

Much of the document remains classified on the grounds that its disclosure could harm the conduct of international affairs, the defense of Canada, or the detection, prevention or suppression of subversive or hostile activities.

The release of the heavily redacted report comes amid pressure on the Liberal government to launch an investigation into foreign interference in Canada after a spate of media leaks of alleged Chinese interference.

The committee’s 1986 report “shows that this issue has been on Canadian intelligence’s radar for decades,” said Alan Barnes, a former intelligence analyst who is now a senior fellow at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

Barnes, who recently discovered the document’s title during an archival search, said the Intelligence Advisory Committee was chaired by the federal coordinator for security and intelligence in the Privy Council’s office.

“His reports have been sent to numerous high-ranking government officials,” he explains.

The 1986 report noted that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “continued its efforts to influence the many large Chinese communities abroad and to exploit these communities for its economic and political ends”.

“In Canada, as in many other Western countries, the PRC uses both overt political activity and covert intelligence operations… to achieve these ends,” the report added. New, potentially more effective techniques are being used to influence Chinese communities in Canada.”

“No accident”

Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for China Democracy, is not surprised by the report. He claims to have been aware of China’s efforts to induce individuals and groups to interfere in Canadian affairs since the early 1980s, although activity was “at a very low level” at the time.

“They knew what they were trying to do. It wasn’t a coincidence,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Kwan believes that Beijing stepped up efforts to influence Chinese communities in Canada after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 in order to restore its badly damaged image.

Over the decades, evidence has surfaced from time to time to show Canadian intelligence officials’ interest in China’s behind-the-scenes actions.

In recent years, the federal government and its security agencies have begun to openly indicate that Beijing is particularly active in foreign interference activities against Canada.

Chinese government officials have consistently denied any interference in Canadian affairs.

Media leaks from unnamed security sources about alleged attempts by China to interfere in the last two general elections have prompted federal Liberals to explain what Canada is doing in response to those attempts.

Opposition parties continue to urge the government to launch a full public inquiry.

Mr. Kwan believes that while an investigation could help document the history of China’s plans for interference, it would essentially be a “retrospective step” rather than a “forward step”.

The partial release of the intelligence report 37 years after it was prepared highlights the need for Canada to put in place an appropriate system for post-period release of historical intelligence and security records, Justice Alan Barnes said.

Canada is the only member of the Five Eyes – which also includes the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – that does not have a process for declassifying historical documents, he notes.