TORONTO: There may be more ‘Chinese police stations’ operating in Canada, the Public Safety Minister told a Canadian TV station on Sunday, months after police said they were investigating whether two community centres in Montreal were being used to intimidate or harass Canadians of Chinese origin.

“I am confident that the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] have taken concrete action to disrupt any foreign interference in relationship to those so-called police stations, and that if new police stations are popping up and so on, that they will continue to take decisive action going forward,” Marco Mendicino told CTVs Question Period in an interview.

In March Canadian police said they were investigating the centres in Montreal. Earlier this month the Canadian press reported the centres were operating normally, despite the minister’s statements that all secret stations in Canada have been shut. China has denied allegations of interfering in Canada’s affairs.

Mendicino’s comments follows tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions by Ottawa and Beijing.

Last week Canada expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after an intelligence report accused him of trying to target a Canadian lawmaker critical of China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority.

The following day China expelled Canadian diplomat Jennifer Lynn Lalonde from Shanghai.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been under pressure to clamp down on suspected Chinese interference and call a public inquiry into the matter. His government has appointed a special investigator to look into the issue.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2023