Diaspora Nation
On national security, diversity is not Canada’s strength, but our Achilles heel. Here are five things we can do to change that.
Immigration has built Canada since its earliest days. While maintaining harmony in a nation as diverse as ours can be a challenge, it also offers advantages. Economically, Canadian companies can reach more markets, brainstorm more ideas, and bring more perspectives and talent to the table thanks to the input of diverse voices. Socially, Canada can offer an example to the world of tolerance and pluralism, a nation built not on ethnicity but on ideals.
But today, that example is failing. Unemployment hit 6.1% in March, productivity is down, and housing costs have spiraled. Our social ideals have been submerged in a deluge of inter-ethnic strife. People feel it’s acceptable to spew hatred and call for the destruction of an entire country. Whether it’s pro-Palestinian protestors demanding the end of Israel, or Kahlistani groups holding referenda on the “liberation” of the Punjab, diasporas are being mobilized in ways that Canada’s founders did not foresee and would certainly condemn.
Increasingly, immigrants are not free to build new lives and leave behind the issues of their homelands. Instead, they have become targets, proxies and pawns for foreign governments, who use them for their own purposes. They are coerced, threatened, and manipulated to elect and pressure politicians to put the interests of foreign governments above our own.
The ongoing foreign interference inquiry has confirmed this. According to CSIS, China, India and Pakistan all attempted to manipulate their diasporas to sway Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021. Canadian political parties have turned a blind eye to this manipulation, or worse, used it for their own purposes. Masses of Chinese international students were bussed to then-aspiring Liberal MP Han Dong’s nomination. Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole says foreign interference helped oust him in 2022. And so on, and so on.
This interference is a problem in peacetime. It threatens the fabric of our democracy and exposes our country to influence by foreign powers. It exposes potentially millions of our citizens to coercion and intimidation, allowing their human rights to be violated without consequence.
But it would be a much greater problem in wartime. What if Canada finds itself in hostilities with one of the countries manipulating its diaspora in Canada, such as China? According to an internal Canadian military intelligence report obtained by Global News in 2023, Russia and China already consider themselves at war with Canada and our allies. This war is currently fought mostly in cyberspace and by proxy, but concern is growing that it could escalate to direct and protracted armed conflict. The latest threat, direct from Beijing, is that World War III could start over China’s claims to the South China Sea.
We must prioritize national security to both root out interference, insulate diaspora communties from its impact, and ensure that future Canadian citizens are not prey to foreign manipulation. Here are five actions we can take today.
First, politicians must stop turning a blind eye to the problem of foreign interference and be held to account if they aid and abet it. That means consequences beyond the scope of the current inquiry. We need the RCMP to investigate and prosecutors to lay charges if enough evidence is found and establish a zero-tolerance policy for foreign interference in political affairs.
Second, we need to protect our diasporas from manipulation. Whether of Chinese, Indian, or other origin, Canadian citizens must feel that our government has their back. Their complaints must be followed up with action, in the form of investigation, condemnation, and sanctions against foreign regimes that attempt to intimidate them. Again, a zero-tolerance policy must be established.
Third, we need to apply a national security lens to all government policies. Currently, our government puts every policy through a gender equity lens. In the current geopolitical context, that lens should be replaced by one of national security. From food to fuels, from investment to immigration, our government needs to ensure that Canada’s security interests are protected, not compromised.
Fourth, Canada needs to recreate the shared sense of patriotism that we have lost. Diversity can be a strength only if we cultivate loyalty to a common project: the Canadian ideals of liberty, peaceable coexistence, and equality of opportunity that have drawn millions of people to our shores over the centuries. For this, we need our leaders to set the example. They need to stop tearing Canada and its history down and emphasize its achievements and prospects for the future.
Fifth, we should toughen the requirements to become a Canadian citizen. Other nations, such as Switzerland, require long period of residence and demonstrated integration as part of their requirements for citizenship. Japan requires new citizens to rescind any other citizenship. Australia requires them to take an explicit pledge to uphold its values; Canada’s oath pales in comparison.
If we do these five things, we will not only redress the effects of foreign interference, but we will take a stand for the values that bind our nation. If we don’t, then all bets are off. At worst, Canada’s current slide into disorder could open the door to the same authoritarian currents sweeping the rest of the globe.
We know what Canada did in previous World Wars to the diasporas of enemy nations, and it was terrible. During World War I, the Canadian government interned over 8,000 Canadians of German and Ukrainian background and forced 80,000 Canadians, mostly of Ukrainian descent, to register as “enemy aliens”. In World War II, the government interned 22,000 Canadians of Japanese origin and 600 people of Italian heritage. It declared 31,000 Italian Canadians “enemy aliens” and deported four thousand people to Japan. These Canadians lost their freedom, businesses, and property, most of which was never returned to them, despite the fact these was no evidence they were in league with or sympathetic to the enemy. It was a shameful chapter in our history, rooted in racism, and never to be repeated.
To ensure no government ever goes down this road again, Canada must act now to protect our democracy, diasporas and defense. The inquiry is a first step, but for it to have a lasting impact, politicians must take the next one - and put the nation’s interests above their own.
Thank you! A lot of truth to expose unfortunately.
Good column. Steps 1 through 4 will be impossible to complete with the current federal government in Ottawa.