MPs, senator ask why government didn't warn them they were targeted by China-backed hackers

Catharine Tunney · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 29, 2024 12:35 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis says his privilege as a parliamentarian was violated when the Canadian government failed to warn him and other members of a parliamentary alliance that they had been targeted by Chinese hackers.

Genius said the FBI told the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) that members of IPAC, which has been critical of the Chinese government, were hit with a reconnaissance cyberattack launched by a Chinese state-controlled entity in 2021.

He and other Canadian IPAC members only found out last week, he said.

"This was part of a coordinated attack," Genuis told the House of Commons Monday morning, rising on a question of privilege. 

"This was identified as a progressive reconnaissance attack — an attack aimed at gathering useful information to be used for subsequent escalating attacks against us."

Liberal MP John McKay, another targeted member of IPAC, told CBC News he received a verbal briefing from IPAC's executive director warning him that the hacking group Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31) was behind the attack and had access to their computers.

"The problem is that this attack is vague. And it's not clear to me how any information could be accessed or could be used," he said.

"It's a bit disconcerting." 

The story was first reported by the Globe and Mail Monday morning. 

According to Genuis, the hackers used a mailing tool that allowed them to track delivery metrics on emails and receive data from victims who opened the emails — including IP addresses, browser types and operating systems.

"The way I understand it, it's either something or it's nothing," said McKay.

16 Canadian parliamentarians targeted: MP 

Genuis said 16 Canadians were targeted by the attack and not all are comfortable with coming forward with their names.

In a statement released earlier on Monday, Liberal MP Judy Sgro, Conservative MPs James Bezan, Stephanie Kusie and Tom Kmiec, and Sen. Marilou McPhedran confirmed they were affected by the attack and joined Genuis and McKay in demanding to know why they weren't informed sooner.

According to Genuis, the FBI told IPAC it was prevented from informing non-U.S. legislators directly due to their "rules regarding sovereignty." He said IPAC also was told the FBI had informed the Canadian government.

CBC News has reached out for comment from Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Communications Establishment Security and the RCMP.  

"It is unacceptable that we were not informed," said Genuis.

"We could have worked with the appropriate authorities to take steps to protect ourselves and ensure the security and functioning of our parliamentary and personal email accounts, but we were not able to because we were not informed. This affected the security of our work as parliamentarians and potentially allowed a foreign entity to have greater awareness of and to seek to counter our efforts."

Speaker Greg Fergus said he will rule quickly on Genuis's question of privilege.

This is not the first time the Canadian government and its intelligence agencies have been called out for not informing MPs and senators of foreign interference threats.

Last year, the Liberal government directed CSIS to share more information directly with Parliamentarians under threat, and to create a direct line to the minister of public safety.

That directive came in response to the backlash that followed after it was revealed that China was targeting the family Conservative MP Michael Chong, in retaliation for his sponsorship of a motion condemning China's treatment of the Uyghur minority as genocide.

According to the federal government's directive, CSIS "will seek wherever possible within the law, and while protecting the security and integrity of national security and intelligence operations and investigations, to ensure that parliamentarians are informed of threats to the security of Canada directed at them."

The question of how intelligence and security is shared at the federal level is a key focus of the foreign interference inquiry investigating allegations of election meddling.

Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, who is running the inquiry, is set to present an interim report on Friday.