China’s Reach in Canada: Former RCMP Officer Calls for Urgent Action

Oct 2, 2025 - 10:03 Updated: Oct 2, 2025 - 09:57

China’s Reach in Canada: Former RCMP Officer Calls for Urgent Action

Despite years of Beijing’s efforts to expand its influence in Canada, the country has yet to fully recognize or counter the threat the communist regime poses to its future, according to a former RCMP officer.

Garry Clement, former national director for the RCMP’s Proceeds of Crime program, has been investigating transnational crime for decades. He describes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the “biggest transnational organized crime group in the world,” and says that despite growing evidence of its operatives, many in positions of authority in Canada appear unwilling to acknowledge the threat or take action.

“Because we are such a kind and gentle country, we dismiss it and allow it to go, but it’s going to come back and bite us,” Clement told The Epoch Times in a recent interview, citing as an example China’s use of international students to steal intellectual property from other countries or to conduct sensitive research clandestinely using North American facilities.

Garry Clement, former RCMP director, in an undated photo. NTD

He said that during his recent research into China’s infiltration in Canada, particularly in provinces like Prince Edward Island, he was less alarmed by the scale of the regime’s operations than by Canada’s apparent disinterest in the imminent threat.

“What did surprise me, though, is that the society as a whole were willing to put their head in the sand, and they knew it,” he said.

Clement recently co-authored a book titled “Canada Under Siege: How Prince Edward Island Became a Forward Operating Base for the Chinese Communist Party.” It details how the Chinese regime for years used immigration loopholes and elite capture to infiltrate P.E.I. and make it a front line for foreign interference.

“This is hybrid warfare,” Clement said in an Aug. 5 press release announcing publication of the book. “Canada doesn’t yet understand the scale of the threat. But we are in an economic war, and Prince Edward Island was ground zero.”

He says the CCP chose Canada’s smallest province for strategic reasons, including its proximity to a major Canadian naval base in Halifax and its location near the United States.

Dean Baxendale, CEO of the China Democracy Fund and Optimum Publishing International, which is publishing the new book, says one reason Beijing targets Canada is to gain access to the United States—its chief rival for global influence.

“They’re using our country to get into the United States,” he told The Epoch Times in an interview. “We have seen a lot of the operatives move from Canada into the United States.”

The CCP and Transnational Crime

Clement says besides places such as P.E.I., Beijing’s infiltration is also a significant concern in larger provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia, with Vancouver emerging as a major hub for drug-related crime due to its role as a transshipment point for narcotics entering North America from China.

Communist China is considered a key contributor to the fentanyl crisis because the majority of chemicals used to make the drug are known to originate in Chinese companies.

FBI Director Kash Patel and the White House earlier this year expressed concerns over drug manufacturing and cartel operations in Canada, with Patel saying that the CCP and the regimes in Russia and Iran are partnering with cartels to smuggle fentanyl into the United States through Vancouver.

A U.S. government report published last year found the CCP to be significantly involved in producing and trafficking illicit fentanyl materials. It said the People’s Republic of China “directly subsidizes” the manufacturing and export of these substances through tax rebates, provides monetary grants and awards to companies “openly” trafficking them, and “strategically and economically” benefits from the fentanyl crisis.

Clement says the Chinese criminal groups involved in fentanyl trafficking and money laundering are the Chinese triads, which work in partnership with cartels and with the support of the CCP. He describes the fentanyl crisis as a “disruptive war tactic by China.”

“China [is] 100 percent behind the fentanyl trade,” Clement told The Epoch Times. “If they really wanted to stop it, they could. They are a communist country—they can stop it.”

He also notes that Chinese criminal groups are key actors in laundering illicit money in Canada through methods such as the so-called Vancouver Model, in which proceeds from drug sales are gambled in casinos and cashed out as clean money. The model gained significant attention in 2022 when British Columbia’s public inquiry into money laundering, the Cullen Commission, revealed that an “unprecedented volume” of illicit cash had been laundered through the province’s casinos.

Scott McGregor, an RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces intelligence veteran, previously told The Epoch Times that Chinese regime-backed money laundering groups often concentrate their operations in Canada by exploiting loopholes in the country’s legal and judicial systems.

“The Chinese and the cartels all conduct operations together, also by themselves and with other entities,” he said.

Buying Canadian Farmland

Baxendale says that compared to the United States, Canada is lagging in efforts to protect its farmland from Chinese ownership. Earlier this year, the U.S. government unveiled a national plan to address foreign ownership of American farmland by “foreign adversaries,” amid growing concerns over purchases by Chinese investors.

“The United States are now banning all of that,” Baxendale said. “In Canada, we are still trying to figure out whether or not we should be concerned—we should be concerned.

“It’s our economic sovereignty, it’s our nation.”

In Canada, the acquisition of agricultural land by non-citizens is regulated at the provincial level, with rules varying across the country. Provinces like Saskatchewan and Manitoba impose limits on acreage non-residents or foreign entities can own, while others, including Ontario and British Columbia, have no such restrictions.

In 2021, 4.1 percent of farm operators in Canada self-identified as members of ethnic minority or indigenous communities, with over 21 percent of that group identifying as Chinese, according to Statistics Canada. Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether these Chinese immigrants are supported by foreign investors, as, unlike in the United States, this type of data is not readily available.

Clement says China’s interest in acquiring Canadian farmland is tied to the country’s abundant natural resources and Beijing’s broader strategy to secure essentials such as water, food, and minerals

“It’s great for control [of the] food supply, so there’s a lot of reasons,” he said. “I think that’s just some of them, and we are too naive to see it.”

Targeting the Diaspora Community

Baxendale says Canada is “failing” its diaspora members, especially the Chinese, by allowing Beijing to target them on Canadian soil.

Transnational repression in Canada has become a growing concern, with diaspora groups such as Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates sounding the alarm and calling on Ottawa to take stronger action.

Transnational repression takes various forms, such as surveillance, vandalism, murder attempts, forced return by confiscating passports, threats against relatives in the home country, or digital smear campaigns.

Earlier this year, Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference identified China as the “most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions,” according to the inquiry’s final report. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, who led the inquiry, said the practice—which she called a “genuine scourge”—warrants prompt government action.

Baxendale says Ottawa must act swiftly to address transnational repression.

“We cannot have a government from outside suppressing all of those elements inside our country, and we have allowed that to take place,” he said.

“[Canada’s institutions], which have been robust, need to be reformed and need to protect the interests of [the] China diaspora, Tibetan diaspora, Uyghur diaspora, every diaspora community here in this country, including Indian, Sikh, etc.,” he added.

“That’s what Canada promised. We are failing them.”

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree has said a foreign influence registry aimed at combating foreign interference in Canada will be established this fall. The registry is part of legislation passed last year called “An Act respecting countering foreign interference,” which was prompted by findings from the public inquiry.

The department of public safety previously told The Epoch Times that, to address transnational repression, the government and law enforcement have been working with at-risk communities and offering tools to protect them from this threat, and that internationally, Ottawa is working with partners to tackle this global issue.

Raising Awareness of the China Threat

Baxendale, who has published several books on the CCP’s operations against Canada, says that while he and the authors he supports have been targeted because of their work, he is resolute in continuing to raise awareness about the issue.

“I’ve been threatened, I’ve been targeted, but ultimately, it’s not me. It’s the risk that my authors have taken, the people, the voices. I’m just the person who has helped facilitate bringing those voices forward,” he said.

“I just do it because I believe it’s right. I believe in the truth. I believe in freedom. I believe in freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience.”

Clement says that while he could choose to retire, he sees it as his duty to help Canada recognize the China threat.

“I could be long retired, and sitting on a beach drinking margaritas,” he said.

“I’m still doing it because I still believe in Canada. I’m proud of being a Canadian, and I owe it to my children, my grandchildren, and their children to try and change it, because if we don’t, the country we see today will not be the country they’re going to have.”