World experts meet in Vancouver for an international security conference – BC
Money laundering, disinformation, election interference, economic security, drug trafficking and espionage.
It is not a recent conspiracy Mission Impossible. It is on the agenda of a major international conference in Vancouver this week that has drawn experts from around the world, many of whom say Canada is not doing enough to protect itself.
More than 70 experts from government, academia and industry met on Tuesday for the second day of the Vancouver International Security Conference, to discuss the links between security and economic and political stability.
The choice to host the conference in Vancouver was not accidental.
In the past five years, British Columbia has seen allegations that China tried to directly influence municipal politicians, while Indian government officials have been arrested for organized crime operating in Surrey. Security experts say the issue is deeper and more complex than most people realize.
“Vancouver has a reputation for being an important combination of horror actors and works, and we thought that Vancouver would be a great place in the world to have a platform for our international partners to talk about it,” said Calvin Chrustie, partner at Critical. Risk Team and former RCMP officer told Global News Morning B.C.
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Chrustie said one of the things the conference hopes to do is help policymakers realize that many security threats cannot be viewed – or tackled – in isolation. It's something he said has been traditionally blind in Canada.
“Political interference is linked to money laundering, linked to corruption, linked to fentanyl trafficking, linked to other acts of foreign interference, linked to foreign repression,” he said.
Crustie added that he believes Canadian democracy is already at risk. But the country, he said, does not have the tools it needs to pull back.
Canada does not have dedicated national police agencies like the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security, and the agencies it does have like CSIS and the RCMP lack the necessary powers, he argued.
He said that the international perception that Canada does not take this issue seriously has led to problems such as the US threatening to impose new strict values related to border security.
“Canada does not have a national strategy for national security,” he said. “So no plan, plan to fail.”
The Mayor of Port Coquitlam, Brad West, who is a critic of foreign interference, delivered one of the main speeches of the conference on Tuesday.
West told Global News that questions about foreign interference undermine people's confidence in Canadian institutions, something he said threatens our democracy.
Foreign adversaries see Canada as an easy “soft floor” to exploit, he said, pointing to allegations of Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections raised by CSIS and parliamentary committees.
But he said the federal government has failed to deal directly with these threats.
“Right now the prime minister says he has the names of members of parliament who are under foreign influence, and those names have not been released,” he said, adding that Canada also does not have a register of foreign agents.
“So we have our work to do, but we've never met the lowest price of what we're getting.”
Canada launched an investigation into foreign election interference, and while a small number of irregularities were admitted, it found it was not enough to change the outcome.
Critics want to see more done at the federal level to ensure transparency and safety.
“If we are going to be a serious country where decisions are made in the interests of our citizens, we have to face this, not avoid it,” West said.
The second phase of the government's investigation will look at the steps that should be taken to ensure that the election is fair.
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