MARKHAM, Ont.—The Toronto-area private school whose name came up prominently during the foreign interference inquiry for busing international students to the Liberal nomination vote of MP Han Dong in 2019 was invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with the prime minister two years later.
The invitation was issued even as the prime minister and Liberal party organizers had been made aware of “irregularities” at the nomination vote by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 2019. The cited issues included international students being told to support Mr. Dong under “veiled threats” by the Chinese consulate.
A post on the website of the NOIC Academy dated March 15, 2021, says the school joined “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Federal Ministers and Members of Parliament for a virtual celebration to welcome the Year of the Ox.”
The post is titled, “NOIC Students Invited by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Join the 2021 Lunar New Year Virtual Celebration.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister told The Epoch Times that the event was organized by the Liberal Party caucus, and that many others were invited as well.
“The Prime Minister participated in a 2021 Lunar New Year virtual fireside chat with Minister [Mary] Ng and key community leaders, which was organized by the Liberal Party caucus,” Mohammad Hussain said in an email.
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“This was not an event organized for the school; there were over 2,000 virtual invitees to event from the Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities in Canada.”
A Sept. 18, 2019, post on the Chinese-language website Easyca advertising the school’s new campus says its students and teachers have been invited to past Chinese New Year celebrations by the Prime Minister’s Office as well.
The prime minister also issued a congratulatory letter to the school for the opening of their new campus in Markham, Ont., in the fall of 2019.
In the years prior, the president of NOIC, Roy Huang, was also invited to a banquet hosted by the prime minister in September 2016 for the occasion of the visit to Canada of then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Another 2019 post in Chinese on the NOIC’s WeChat channel asks students to apply for internships at the Prime Minister’s Office.
In a WeChat post in Chinese in February 2024, the school boasts that it has a strong relationship with the Canadian government, and that its students have taken part in elections at all three levels of government.
“With nearly 20 years of development in Canada, the school has built strong relationships with the Canadian government and various public and private institutions to provide students with additional social practice opportunities,” the post says.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on April 10, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)“Our students volunteer in local Toronto police stations, homes for seniors, and various charitable organizations. They have also participated in Canadian federal elections, Ontario provincial elections, and municipal elections in Toronto.”
The post adds that the students have taken part in “social activities organized by the prime minister of Canada.”
Dong’s Nomination Vote
Mr. Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus last year to sit as an Independent amid media reports of his interactions with the Chinese Consulate and Beijing’s attempts to interfere in Canada’s elections. He has denied any wrongdoing. Mr. Dong has not returned requests for comment.
An intelligence summary document presented at the Foreign Interference Commission on April 2 said there were “irregularities” during the Liberal Party nomination race in Don Valley North in Toronto that Mr. Dong won in September 2019 ahead of that year’s general election.
The document says international students, some of them with falsified documents, were bused to the nomination meeting, and that they received “veiled threats” by the Chinese Consulate regarding their student visa status if they didn’t support Mr. Dong. It also says intelligence reporting had indicated “the involvement of an individual who is a known proxy agent of PRC officials.”
Since the Don Valley North riding is a Liberal stronghold, whoever wins the party’s nomination race has a good chance of becoming the MP in that riding, which was the case in 2019. Mr. Dong became the MP that year and won his seat again in 2021.
The Liberal Party’s nomination rules allow those who are over 14 to vote for candidates, even if they are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Mr. Dong admitted belatedly to the inquiry that he was aware that NOIC had “organized” a bus to take international students to vote in his nomination contest. He said he didn’t know if the international students referred to in the intelligence document were the same ones bused in by the NOIC.
During his testimony, Mr. Dong said even though the school is not in the Don Valley North riding, he campaigned at the residence of the NOIC students at a Seneca College residence centre, which is located in the riding.
Mr. Trudeau was made aware of the intelligence in 2019, but kept Mr. Dong in caucus. When asked about the irregularities during his testimony at the inquiry on April 10, Mr. Trudeau said there were uncertainties about the intelligence.
“A well-grounded suspicion is certainly warranting more reflection and follow ups, but also might not hit the necessarily very high threshold for overturning the result of a democratic event,” he said.
Han Dong arrives to appear as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on April 2, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)NOIC
The NOIC Academy, formerly named New Oriental International College, is a private boarding secondary school established in Toronto in 2004. The school moved to its new campus in Markham in 2019.
The school’s name is licensed from the China-based education company New Oriental, which has invested millions of dollars in the school, according to a 2019 report by the Chinese news platform Toutiao.
The school’s website features a Letter of Acknowledgement issued by the Chinese consulate in 2017, praising the school for “tremendous contributions to the security and wellness of Chinese students.”
More such letters issued by the consulate in subsequent years, including in 2020 and 2021, have been featured on the school’s WeChat channel.
NOIC’s president Mr. Huang was in attendance at an August 2017 event held in Markham to celebrate the appointment of John McCallum as Canada’s ambassador to Beijing. Mr. McCallum was eventually removed from his post in 2019 over providing legal arguments to Chinese state-owned media members in defence of arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Also in attendance at that event were the Chinese consul general in Toronto, as well as Wei Chengyi, permanent honorary president of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association, whose address is listed as one of China’s secret overseas police stations.
In 2016, the school president took part in a fundraising event celebrating the Toronto Overseas Chinese Service Centre. The centres are governed by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, which is part of Beijing’s United Front Work Department. According to CSIS and other intelligence agencies, the United Front organization is involved in foreign interference activities.
A video on the homepage of the NOIC shows a celebratory event for the opening of the 2019-2020 school year. The video starts by marking the anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) establishing its regime in China in 1949. The day, Oct. 1, is called the National Day of the People’s Republic of China by the CCP.
“Today is a special day,” says a voice as the video begins. “Today is the 70th anniversary, National Day, for China.”
The video shows a slide projected at the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary, and then immediately cuts to a scene showing two uniformed Toronto Police officers giving salute.
A user-uploaded YouTube video, however, shows that the two officers are actually standing in salute for the playing of the Canadian national anthem.
The video also shows Mr. Dong giving a speech at the school.
The Epoch Times contacted the Toronto Police about the video. A spokesperson said thanks for “bringing this to our attention” but didn’t provide further comment.
The Epoch Times made multiple attempts to speak to the NOIC by phone, email, and by visiting the school, but didn’t hear back.
At the school’s Markham campus, a woman who only gave her first name, Agnes, said she was in charge of marketing and would check with the principal. But after checking, she said they can’t talk to the reporter, and asked him to leave.
NOIC Academy in Markham, Ont., on April 8, 2024. (Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times)International Students
Mr. Dong maintained interactions with the NOIC after winning the 2019 election, making posts about his attendance of the school’s events with other politicians on social media.
The MP has also kept a focus on international students in his addresses in the House of Commons parliamentary committees.
“International students, when they graduate, are entitled to apply for a one- or three-year work permit,” Mr. Dong said in one such address at the Human Resources Committee on May 8, 2020, to then-Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino. “Would you consider a one-year automatic extension to those work permits?”
Mr. Dong has indicated that he would like to rejoin the Liberals. So far, he still remains an Independent.
Mr. Trudeau dodged questions by reporters about the issue during the testimony phase of the inquiry.
“Obviously, these are ongoing conversations that need to be taken very seriously,” Mr. Trudeau said on April 3 after being pressed by reporters for an answer.
Andrew Chen, Kathy Han, and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
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