When is it OK for members of Parliament and senators to accept free trips from foreign governments and business groups?
That question has been swirling just under the radar in Ottawa this week on the heels of a Globe and Mail report that there have been 36 cases since 2006 of parliamentarians taking sponsored junkets to China paid for by the United Front Work Department, the branch of the Chinese government responsible for trying to burnish China’s image abroad, and by business groups seeking closer ties between Canada and China.
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Such trips are allowed but parliamentarians are required to disclose them: in the case of senators, to the Senate Ethics Office, and in the case of MPs, to the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner.
However, the concern around trips paid for by China largely stems from the fact that the country’s dictatorship is actively trying to curry favour abroad and cultivate ties with the goal of gaining greater political influence in countries where it wants to do business and boost its image.
The Senate Ethics Office is now reported to be investigating three Conservative senators who took trips to China with their spouses this past April and did not disclose those travels to the ethics officer.
Sponsored travel is not subject to the same rules that govern whether MPs can accept things like gifts and benefits: in both those cases, a method called an acceptability test is used to gauge whether the gift or benefit can reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the member of parliament in carrying out their duties.
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Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson recommended in 2015 that the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons be amended to require sponsored travel to face the same scrutiny as other potential perks like gifts.
The House of Commons Committee on Procedure and House Affairs did not implement that recommendation in their amendment of the code that year.
Dawson’s office told Global News she stands by the recommendation that sponsored travel should be subject to an acceptability test — but stressed she is not specifically reiterating her call for that test to be implemented in light of concerns about sponsored travel to China.
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When asked whether the Conservatives would push for a closer review of the rules around sponsored travel by MPs, Conservative justice critic Rob Nicholson did not specifically say whether the party would support taking a second look at Dawson’s recommendation but did say the issue should get a closer look.
“The subject of sponsored trips is something the Board of Internal Economy could consider,” he said in an email.
The Board of Internal Economy, known as BOIE around Parliament Hill, is the powerful and secretive body that controls issues around administration of the House of Commons.
Everything from budgets, security and human resources issues fall under its purview, and the committee only just opened up its meetings to the public in October for the first time.
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Nathan Cullen, the NDP critic for ethics and democratic reform, said there are legitimate questions being asked about sponsored travel but said the challenge with acceptability tests is setting clear standards that can apply across a wide range of situations: for example, should a trip sponsored by the U.S. State Department to observe the election on the ground be treated the same way as trips sponsored by the Chinese government?
“Every situation is a little bit different with China,” he said. “It depends on what the intent and nature of the trip is. if you’re invited on a trip to China to study how their manufacturing sector works, I think that can only be helpful … if it’s a trip where they’re showing you the sights and having nice dinners and it’s just a feel-good thing, then Canadians would be right to question.”
Cullen said he would be happy to have a conversation with the new ethics commissioner, who will be replacing Dawson in the new year, about what such an acceptability test could look like and what kinds of activities should or should not be allowed.
“You could probably look at trips to friendly allies where the trip had no real substance to it, it looks far too much like something someone would put on a tourist schedule, and that’s when people would say, well, why are you going?” he said, stressing such trips should include opportunities to hear from multiple points of view within the country including dissenters, which likely would not be possible with trips to China given the country’s muzzling of activists and political dissidents.
Global News asked the Prime Minister’s Office whether the government would support or be open to discussions around amending the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons.
The request was referred to Government House Leader Bardish Chagger and her spokesperson said parliamentarians are free to bring the issue up for closer review at committee if they want to.
“The government recognizes that the Conflict of Interest code is contained in the Standing Orders of the House of Commons,” said spokesperson Sabrina Atwal in an email to Global News. “As such, if Members of Parliament wish for this to be examined further, the appropriate place for it to occur would be at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee. Committees are independent and in charge of their own proceedings.”
China’s ‘magic weapon’
An investigation this past summer by the Financial Times into the United Front Work Department, which the Communist Party uses as its vehicle for facilitating such trips by Western politicians, characterized the department as its “secret ‘magic weapon’ for worldwide influence.”
“Its broad aims are to win support for China’s political agenda, accumulate influence overseas and gather key information,” the investigation concluded, and described the United Front as “the pinnacle of Chinese power to charm, co-opt or attack well-defined groups and individuals.”
Efforts by China to secure greater global influence in recent years have regularly put the country’s belligerence and aggression on full display.
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Earlier this week, Chinese security guards physically blocked photographers from the Canadian Press and the Prime Minister’s Office from taking photos of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he and Chinese Premier Li Keqian walked a red carpet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and a Chinese foreign ministry official berated a Canadian diplomat within earshot of reporters for not bringing the passports of reporters travelling with the prime minister, which sparked an angry exchange between the two.
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Trudeau was widely expected to announce the formal start of talks between China and Canada towards a free trade deal; China wants one with a G7 country and talks with Canada would bring it one step closer to achieving that goal.
Last year, Queen Elizabeth described Chinese officials as having been “very rude” to Barbara Woodward, Britain’s first female ambassador to China, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United Kingdom in 2015.
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Also last year, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, berated a Canadian reporter for asking then-foreign affairs minister Stephane Dion whether Canada had raised concerns about human rights in China during his meeting with Wang.
Richard Fadden, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, warned in 2010 that several provincial cabinet ministers and government employees were “agents of influence” for China, and both Australia and New Zealand have raised red flags over the past year about efforts by China to influence their domestic politics.
Australian media have also reported that country’s attorney general is planning to bring in new laws to crack down on who can lobby and influence Australian politicians, with fears over Chinese influence driving the push.
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