The judge overseeing Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission of Inquiry has decided two people can give evidence in secret about how the People’s Republic of China “co-opts and leverages some Chinese Canadian community associations and politicians of Chinese origin.”
Justice Marie-Josee Hogue made the decision in a written ruling dated Wednesday which is not posted on the commission’s website.
Her ruling, obtained by Global News, grants two witnesses — “Person B and Person C” — the right to testify by secret affidavits that will not be disclosed to the public or inquiry participants.
Hogue also issued a simultaneous order to seal their affidavits from the public for 99 years, after commission materials are deposited at the National Archives of Canada when the inquiry ends.
Only a summary of the Person B and Person C affidavits will be publicly released to protect the two persons from possible physical threats, intimidation and harassment, …