Second group suspected of being Chinese `police' got federal funding

OTTAWA The federal government gave nearly $160,000 to another Quebec non-profit the RCMP believes may be hosting a secret Chinese “police station,” the second organization to receive funding experts fear may have been used to advance Beijing's agenda in Canada.

According to a federal government database, Centre Sino-québec de la Rive Sud, a not-for-profit based in Montreal's south shore, received over $105,000 in funding between 2016 and 2022 via six grants from the Canada Summer Jobs program.

In its 2018-2019 annual report, the most recent report available via an internet archiving service after the information was scrubbed from its website, Centre Sino-québec said it used the funding that year to hire four students of Chinese origin to work at a summer camp for youth from low-income immigrant families.

The data also shows it received over $53,000 via three contributions between 2020 and 2022 from the New Horizons for Seniors program, which funds projects geared toward seniors.

The issue is that Centre SinoQuébec is one of two Quebec organizations — alongside Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal (SFCGM) — that is under RCMP investigation for allegedly hosting a secret Chinese police station suspected of leading efforts to identify, monitor, intimidate or silence critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In a statement last week, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Tasha Adams said the investigation is part of a larger probe aiming to “detect and perturb criminal activities supported by a foreign state that can threaten the safety of people living in Canada.”

Postmedia reported that SFCGM has also reported receiving up to $200,000 in funding from the federal government since 2020, also via the Canada Summer Jobs and New Horizons for Seniors programs.

Both organizations have also been designated as Overseas Chinese Service Centres by China's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, which became part of China's controversial United Front Work Department (UFWD) in 2018.

According to its last available annual report, Centre Sino- Québec reported it received the designation in 2016 directly from “Minister Yuanping Qiu of the government of the People's Republic of China.”

At the time, Yuanping was the director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. She is now a top member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a central part of the CCP'S united front influence system.

It is unclear if either Centre SinoQuébec or SFCGM are still designated Overseas Chinese Service Centres. Emails and text messages over the last week to both organizations, as well as their common executive director, Xixi Li, have gone unanswered.

In a message posted on its website on March 14, SFCGM leadership questioned why the RCMP “would publicly name two community centres serving the Chinese communities in Québec, causing serious and potentially irreparable harm to the community.” It also called for the respect of the “presumption of innocence.”