Association of Families of Flight PS752 representative Hamed Esmaeilion (left), Falun Dafa Association of Canada's Grace Dai Wollensak, and Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project's Mehmet Tohti listen to Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance's Yuriy Novodvorskiy (right) at the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions, Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Ottawa.ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Good morning,

Leaders of diaspora groups told the Foreign Interference Commission yesterday that intimidation from foreign states is a threat to Canadian democracy, and detailed how their communities have been bullied and harassed by hostile foreign states and their proxies in Canada.

The commission heard from a panel of Chinese, Sikh, Iranian, Russian and Uyghur-Canadian activists on the opening of nine days of public hearings into foreign-influence operations in the 2019 and 2021 elections – testimony that described threats of verbal and physical abuse and even an alleged murder.

Among the activists was Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, who had announced last month that he would not participate in the inquiry. He planned to boycott because he feared being cross-examined by former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Michael Chan, now deputy mayor of Markham, and former Liberal MP Han Dong, now sitting as an independent, because of their alleged close ties to the Chinese government. Tohti decided to testify after Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue ruled that he and other activists would not face cross-examination.

The Globe and Mail, 28 March 2024