OTTAWA — Although the federal foreign interference task force said China had likely manipulated the 2019 Liberal nomination race in a Toronto-area riding, Canada’s election watchdog says she found no evidence federal election laws were broken.
 

The revelation is buried in the
Commissioner of Canada Elections’ latest annual report
published last week.
 

In the report, Commissioner Caroline Simard says she looked into two instances of alleged foreign interference that were discussed at length during a public inquiry. In both cases she found “either no evidence or not enough evidence” to support a breach of the Canada Elections Act.
 

The first instance involved allegations of manipulation by the Chinese consulate in Toronto of the controversial 2019 Liberal nomination race in Don Valley North that ultimately coronated Han Dong.
 

Both Foreign Interference Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue and the task force monitoring for foreign interference in Canadian elections have reported suspicious behaviour by Chinese authorities during the 2019 Toronto-area Liberal nomination race that likely tainted the result.

A report from Hogue last year said some intelligence, which was not “firmly substantiated,” suggested Chinese students were provided with “falsified documents” and then bused in to the Liberal Don Valley North nomination election so they could vote for Dong despite not being residents of the riding.
 

Those documents were provided by individuals associated with a well-known Chinese proxy agent, the report read. After the vote, intelligence agencies reported that those students were in fact coerced into voting for Dong.
 

“Some intelligence reported after the election indicated that veiled threats were issued by the PRC Consulate to the Chinese international students, implying their student visas would be in jeopardy and that there could be consequences for their families back in the PRC if they did not support Han Dong,” read the report.
 

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force also stated in its report on the 2019 federal election that “PRC officials likely manipulated one of the nomination contests in the Toronto riding of Don Valley North,” but said that some of the allegations remained “unconfirmed.”

Dong has never been found guilty of any wrongdoing in relation to his nomination race.

In a statement, commissioner spokesperson Pierre Verriere said the office conducted “extensive research, interviews, and analysis” of the Don Valley North Liberal nomination race before deciding in February to close the review without imposing any sanctions.
 

In a
document submitted to the foreign interference inquiry
last year, the commissioner’s office said it was investigating five potential contraventions including voter intimidation, inducing others to vote outside of their electoral district and illegal electoral donations by an ineligible donor.
 

Verriere said the office looked into multiple potential Elections Act breaches but found that the evidence to support them was either non-existent or insufficient.
 

“To take formal compliance or enforcement action, the Commissioner must have tangible evidence to substantiate allegations of wrongdoing,” commissioner spokesperson Pierre Verriere said in a statement.
 

“Following our assessment of the allegations against potential CEA contraventions, we found either no evidence to support formal enforcement action or insufficient evidence, depending on the provision in question,” he added.
 

But as it was highlighted repeatedly throughout the foreign interference Inquiry last year, the commissioner’s oversight power during party nomination races is limited.
 

She
told inquiry staff
that her mandate during internal party elections is limited to political financing and that it would be a major resource challenge for her to have to oversee every nomination race for all 343 federal ridings.
 

She also noted that she does not have the mandate nor the ability to verify intelligence, which was the basis for most of the allegations in Don Valley North.
 

Dong, who stepped away from Liberal caucus after a string of media stories regarding these allegations in 2023 and did not run in the 2025 election, has always denied any wrongdoing. In June, he settled a two-year defamation lawsuit with Global News.
 

He said Tuesday that he was not aware that the commissioner’s investigation was closed until National Post contacted him for comment.
 

“I have always said that I have always followed the election rules. Unfortunately, my family, my team and I have suffered irreversible harm,” Dong said in a text message.
 

“I remain hopeful that this conclusion of Commissioner Simard’s investigation will bring DVN electors, especially Liberals, full closure and restore public confidence in our democratic process and institutions.”
 

The other instance Simard reviewed pertained to allegations of Chinese interference against Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu during the 2021 federal election in the B.C. riding of Steveston–Richmond East.
 

During her testimony before the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference last year, Simard said her office had already concluded there was insufficient evidence to support charges of “undue foreign influence” or any other breaches of the Elections Act.
 

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com 

• Foreign interference inquiry issues report; finds ‘tainted’ elections and candidates undermined
• Han Dong says international students voted en masse in his 2019 Liberal nomination

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A watersports rental company in Sarnia, Ont., lost one of its Sea-Doos on the weekend when the man who rented it failed to return. He is believed to have taken it to Michigan, which is just a few hundred metres away on the American side of the St. Clair River.

Sarnia police say they received a call on Saturday night at 9:40 p.m. regarding a missing person. “A male party, identified as Romeo Bajrami, had rented a Sea-Doo with cash at 6:45 p.m. with a scheduled return time of 7:45 p.m. and had failed to return,”

police said

in a statement.

Taylor Gordon, president of

Gordons Watersports

in Sarnia, told National Post that the renter had used a debit card for his transaction but also plunked down $500 cash as a deposit on the rental.

That money is now forfeit, Gordon said, “unless he wants to come back to Canada, come back and see us, but he has a warrant out for his arrest in Canada for stealing a Sea-Doo.”

Sarnia Police confirmed they have issued an arrest warrant for Bajrami, aged 40, of Lakeshore Road in Toronto on a charge of theft of a motor vehicle.

The renter paid for the “Sea-Duo and Dine” package, which includes dinner for two at the dockside restaurant, plus an hour on the Sea-Doo. “He brought the staff the second meal that was provided to him,” Gordon said, adding: “They didn’t eat the meal.”

He added that the renter was in contact with the staff at his company. “Until he wasn’t.”

“He was late, he said he was just 10 minutes behind, and then he spoke with the staff again and had another excuse, and then after that there was no communication,” Gordon said. “That’s when the staff called the authorities.”

Sarnia Police alerted nearby agencies of the man’s disappearance. “At this time officers suspected possible theft or intentional disappearance due to forfeited deposit and evasive behaviour,” they said. The Canadian Coast Guard, Sarnia Fire and nearby Point Edward Fire were all involved to conduct a marine search of the St. Clair River near the rental establishment.

“A search of these waterways (Canadian side) was unsuccessful,” police said. CBSA and Toronto Police were also notified.

Then, shortly after midnight, the U.S. Coast Guard located the Sea-Doo on the American shore south of Sarnia. “With the Sea-Doo was a shirt that Bajrami was last seen wearing, a life jacket, and keys to the Sea-Doo,” police reported. “It is believed that Bajrami was successful in conducting an illegal border crossing. U.S. Customs and Immigration were notified and are investigating this incident.”

Taylor said the U.S. Coast Guard still has the Sea-Doo. “They said give them a few days and then they’ll contact us to pick it up,” he said. “We don’t know what shape it’s in it yet but we’ll see and then we’ll go from there.”

Taylor said this is the first time something like this has happened in the four years that Gordons Watersports has been in business.

“We tell renters where the invisible border line is and to stay on Canadian waters and definitely do not cross the border into the States,” he said. The distance between the two countries is quite small, just a few hundred metres across the St. Clair River between Sarnia and Port Huron, Michigan.

The case is reminiscent of one just a few days earlier, when police in LaSalle, Ont., opposite Detroit, Michigan, noticed a a man at the water’s edge with two backpacks and a kayak.

“The officer investigated and discovered the man was attempting to illegally enter Canada,”

police said

. A 51-year-old from the U.S. was turned over to the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

For Gordon, however, “this is definitely a first, a first and a last, that’s what we’re hoping. It’s been an eventful and a little stressful weekend for us but we’re trying to make the best out of the horrible situation.”

Indeed,

the Facebook page

for Gordons Watersports is playing up the lighter side of the affair. A post on Tuesday morning included the line “catch waves, not warrants,” and reminded renters to “keep it fun and legal,” adding: “Gordons Watersports — where the only thing you’ll be crossing is the wake.”

It also thanked “our staff, border control, and law enforcement for their quick action in … this very rare case of an illegal entry to the U.S.”

By Tuesday afternoon an additional post invited visitors to answer the question: “Why did Romeo cross illegally?” It suggested “To find his Juliet,” “Audition for Fast and Furious Sea-Doo Drift” and “Heard Tim Hortons was out of Timbits.” Best answer gets a $50 gift card.

• Canadian permanent residents will now have to pay ‘visa integrity fee’ to enter U.S. Here’s what it is
• An American sent to Canada was shocked by how furious Canadians are at the U.S.

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Almost half of Canadians believe the federal government is providing the right amount of support to Ukraine in the war against Russia, while 14 per cent think Canada is not supportive enough, according to a new poll.

The poll, which was conducted by Leger for the Metropolis Institute and the Association for Canadian Studies, compared Canadian and American opinions about the war, which started in 2014, but reached a new height in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

The poll found that Americans were more likely to think their country isn’t doing enough to support Ukraine. Just under one third (29 per cent) said the United States isn’t doing enough, while 26 per cent said support was about right and 19 per cent said the U.S. has been too supportive. In Canada, 17 per cent of respondents thought their country was doing too much.

Almost half of Canadians said they’ve been following the conflict very closely (12 per cent) or somewhat closely (36 per cent), while 32 per cent said “not very closely” and 16 per cent said they haven’t been following the war at all. Americans have been paying about the same amount of attention, with 15 per cent following it very closely, 28 per cent somewhat closely, 27 per cent not very closely and a quarter of respondents in the U.S. saying they haven’t been following the war at all.

Among the 12 per cent of Canadians who are following the events in Ukraine closely, 47 per cent of them believe Canada supports Ukraine the right amount, while 38 per cent believe that Canada is not supportive enough.

Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute, said Canadians don’t feel like they have much control over the outcome of the war. “At this particular time, Canadians do not feel that their support is providing for a significant impact in that regard,” he said, adding that Canadians were more supportive of Ukraine at the start of the war.

“We’re not seeing the same type of mobilization that we saw at the front of the conflict. You’re not seeing a lot of Ukrainian flags or symbols out there,” he said.

Fewer than half of Canadian respondents (47 per cent) said they have a fairly good understanding of the conflict, while 11 per cent said they have barely any understanding at all.

Canadians over 35 years old feel like they have a better understanding of the conflict compared to those under 35, the poll found.

“Those people who are in those older cohorts feel they have a better understanding of the conflict than the younger cohorts do,” said Jedwab. “That doesn’t mean they’re right or not right, but that’s how they feel.”

About half (49 per cent) of Canadians between 24 and 34 years old said that they have a good understanding, while 39 per cent of Canadians between 18 and 24 years old feel like they don’t have the best understanding of the issue.

Americans and Canadians have a similar view about whether or not lasting peace can be reached. A plurality (42 per cent of Canadians and 40 per cent of Americans) think it can, while 28 per cent of Canadians and 26 per cent of Americans think lasting peace cannot be reached. In both countries, about a third said they don’t know.

“When you are in North America, we think all conflicts can be resolved. But unfortunately, in some parts of the world there’s no quick fix,” said Jedwab.

Men seem to be more optimistic than women, with 51 per cent and 34 per cent respectively believing lasting peace can be found between Russia and Ukraine.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, more than one million Russian troops have been killed or injured in the past three years, and more than 400,000 Ukrainians have been killed or injured.

The online survey of 1,511 Canadians and 1,011 Americans was conducted by Leger between June 6 and 8, 2025.

A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey. A probability sample of 1,511 respondents in Canada would have a margin of error of plus or minus plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

• Trump says he will meet with Putin to discuss possible Ukraine deal on Friday
• Canadians still supportive of letting in Ukrainian migrants fleeing war with Russia: poll

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An Ottawa man who served in Afghanistan helping the Canadian Armed Forces during its NATO mission is begging the prime minister and the immigration minister to help save his sister and nephew from the Taliban’s imminent revenge.

“As a Canadian citizen and someone who served this country with pride and dignity, I now find myself feeling ashamed. My service not only brought danger to my family but has also ruined my entire family’s life,” he wrote in letters to Mark Carney and Lena Diab last week.

“During my service, I saved many lives of soldiers in the line of duty. Now, when it comes to my family, I find myself facing a wall of silence. Is this not a slap in the face for my services to Canada?” his letters ask.

His family’s unusual situation stems from his work as an advisor for Canada’s soldiers in Afghanistan, where he was born. He immigrated to Canada in 2005, became a Canadian citizen, and was a university student in Ottawa when recruited by the Department of National Defence.

In 2010, as a Language and Cultural Advisor (LCA), he left Ottawa to join Canada’s soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, where he had top-secret clearance to help in the dangerous mission.

Kandahar is the political base and stronghold of the Taliban, and when locals discovered his identity, his sister and her family still living in Afghanistan were targeted with threats and warnings, he said.

“In their eyes we were helping the infidels,” he said.

His sister’s husband, a police officer, was shot dead in 2013 and she was told “this is the consequence you face.” After continued threats and fears for her children as they became adults, they fled Afghanistan in 2018, he said. They sought refugee status in Turkey.

(The man’s identity was protected by Canada’s Federal Court in a recent proceeding about his case because of danger to his relatives for his work with the military. He asked that his name not be published for fear it would cause further harm to his family abroad.)

Ever since his family left Afghanistan, he has worked to get them to safety in Canada, without success.

After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Canada announced a special immigration policy to help LCAs bring family here. It was limited to family still in Afghanistan around the time when Kabul fell to the Taliban, meaning his sister was ineligible because she left before that.

He fears it will soon be too late.

His sister and one of her adult sons have now been ordered deported back to Afghanistan from Turkey where they sought asylum. National Post has seen a copy of her deportation order. The family believes they will be targeted and punished by the Taliban if they are returned. The Taliban remains listed as a terrorist group by the Canadian government.

“My sister who lost her husband because of my service to Canada is now likely going to lose her life because of my service, and this country will not do anything,” he said in an interview.

He has been writing to officials in Ottawa for years trying to solve the problem. After seeing how imminent her deportation could be, he tried another plea to Carney and other government officials.

“How can you reconcile the sacrifices I made in service to Canada with the current neglect my family is experiencing?” he asked in his letter emailed Thursday, and read by the Post. “Why are the lives of my family members, who are at risk due to my service, not being prioritized?”

On Monday, he received a reply from the Prime Minister’s Office.

“While I am sympathetic to the circumstances you describe, Prime Minister Carney is unable to personally intervene or provide you with direct assistance in this matter,” said the PMO’s executive correspondence officer. “While the Prime Minister appreciates the time you have taken to share your concerns, he will leave your comments to be considered by the Minister (of Immigration).”

The former LCA said it is frustrating. He has asked Diab, the minister, and her predecessors for help and said he has made no progress.

He immediately wrote back to the PMO: “I kindly urge the Prime Minister to look into this situation, as it has reached a critical juncture, and it is essential that we act swiftly to prevent irreversible consequences. I appeal to the government to fulfill its moral and ethical responsibility in this case.”

National Post sent requests last week for comment from Diab and from David McGuinty, minister of defence. Neither minister responded.

A spokesman for the ministry of immigration said they declined to comment on this specific case, citing privacy legislation.

“Canada is concerned with the deportation of Afghan refugees and the situation they may face upon return to Afghanistan, and continues to engage with partners in the region,” the statement said.

Canada has helped resettle 59,000 Afghans since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the ministry said, although intake for its special Afghan programs is now closed.

Meanwhile, the former LCA said Canada is sending a terrible message to those who might be called on in the future to use their language skills and local knowledge to help Canada abroad, wherever the next global crisis unfolds.

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

• Federal Court closes door on safety in Canada for fleeing Afghan advisors’ families
• The unpardonable sins of 2021 and the Afghans who suffer because of them

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

The Israel Defense Forces killed Anas al-Sharif, who Israel says posed as a journalist for the Qatari Al Jazeera network but was actively serving as the head of a Hamas terrorist cell.

Al-Sharif, who was slain in Gaza City on Saturday, was responsible for orchestrating and advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops, the Israeli military said.

The IDF previously released intelligence and recovered many documents in Gaza that it says shows al-Sharif’s “military” role within Hamas. These materials include personnel rosters, records of terrorist training courses, phone directories and salary documents, all substantiating his alleged involvement as a combatant and commander in Hamas.

The evidence also highlighted al-Sharif’s integration within Al Jazeera, despite the media network’s efforts to distance itself from his activities.

The documents detail al-Sharif’s alleged position as a fighter and cell leader since 2013, including his leadership in rocket units and participation in elite Nukhba battalions. These records not only suggest clear affiliation with terrorist operations but also outline attempts to use journalistic credentials as a cover for operational activity.

“A terrorist with a camera is still a terrorist! I commend our security forces for eliminating the terrorist Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, who operated under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon wrote in an X post on Sunday.

Col. Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab Media Branch in the IDF, posted pictures on X on Sunday showing al-Sharif taking a selfie with Hamas terror leaders, including Yahya Sinwar and Khalil al-Hayya. “Only a terrorist sits in the gatherings of terrorists,” Adraee wrote.

The Committee to Protect Journalists and others described the death of al-Sharif and others as retribution against those documenting the war in Gaza. Israel’s military asserted that al-Sharif had led a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif previously dismissed as baseless.

Five of the journalists killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday were Al Jazeera staffers. The military has previously said it targeted individuals it described as Hamas terrorists posing as reporters.

The strike came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In a July 24 video, Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused al-Sharif of being part of Hamas’ military wing.

Al Jazeera called the strike a “targeted assassination” and accused Israeli officials of incitement.

“Anas and his colleagues were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people,” the Qatari network said in a statement.

Apart from rare invitations to observe Israeli military operations, international media have been barred from entering Gaza for the duration of the war.

Al Jazeera is blocked in Israel and soldiers raided its offices in the occupied West Bank last year, ordering them closed.

— With files from Jewish News Syndicate and The Associated Press

If housing costs too much, there must not be enough supply. That’s Ottawa’s simple take on the affordable housing crisis in Canada. And their simple solution? Impose policy, including the housing accelerator fund, to get rid of zoning prohibitions and accelerate the building of new homes within existing urban footprints.

But, asks Patrick Condon, professor of urban design at the University of British Columbia: What if the feds are wrong?

If increased density delivered affordability, he counters, Vancouver would be cheap by now. And what does the current glut of unsold small condo units in glass towers — in places like Toronto and Hamilton — tell us about Ottawa’s theory?

“I think I’m considered a bit of a bête noire around here on the policy side,” Patrick acknowledges, in a recent video conversation. “Certainly the B.C. provincial policies have moved in a very opposite direction to the ones that I’ve been recommending,” he says with a grimace.

The professor doesn’t strike me as a contrarian. His three decades of experience as a city planner, and then as a teacher and researcher in sustainable urban design, lend undeniable credibility to what he’s saying. Originally from the U.S. (his voice retains traces of his Massachusetts roots), Patrick landed in Vancouver in 1992 to teach at UBC and work on urban design, including helping design the East Clayton project in the early 2000s in Surrey, B.C.

And the fact he’s honest enough to change his mind is telling; until seven or eight years ago, Patrick was an advocate for increased density. “My professional strategy was to add density into existing areas or create new neighbourhoods that had this kind of affordable density,” he says. “Unfortunately,” he admits, “that hasn’t worked.”

“A lot of people attack me as the old white guy,” he adds with a wince, “old white NIMBY guy.” I believe him when he says he’s heartbroken the dominant narrative blames single family home owners for the affordability crisis. “It’s a tragedy that there is confusion in the narrative,” he laments, pitting one generation against another. I couldn’t agree more.

“The dominant narrative to explain why housing is too expensive comes down to what I consider to be a rather naive notion about the laws of supply and demand,” explains Patrick. “Why isn’t there enough supply?” he posits. To the federal government’s way of thinking, Patrick responds, answering his own question, those who administer local zoning ordinances (which in Ottawa’s argument, guarantee the inviolability of the single family home) are the problem.

“If you’re saying that the problem is, we’re not adding enough housing to existing neighbourhoods, and if we would only get rid of zoning regulations, everything would be fine, you need to have proof of that,” Patrick asserts. “And when you look around for proof,” he says, “you find that there really isn’t any.”

The most obvious example, he suggests, is the city of Vancouver, where urban boundaries have not expanded in generations. “So all the housing that has gone into Vancouver,” he explains, “has been essentially infill housing that has been accepted through changes and zoning ordinances.”

Vancouver has tripled the number of housing units since the 1960s, Patrick reports. What’s less well known, he says, this densification hasn’t just been achieved by building high-rises in the city’s downtown; the rest of the city has accepted over 50 percent of the housing units in lower density formats (basement suites, duplexes, triplexes, four-storey buildings along corridors).

“That housing, advanced by me and others, was based on partly the premise that this would lead to affordable housing,” he says. “We tried really hard. We tripled the density. We tripled the number of housing units within the same footprint,” he reports, “and as a reward for our heroic efforts, we have the highest home prices, when measured against average regional incomes of any place in North America, and the third highest home prices in the world.”

So he’s warning the feds, and anyone else who will listen: “If you think the solution is just to get rid of the restrictions on zoning and let towers be built basically everywhere, which is what the Vancouver strategy is now, you’re gonna be disappointed.”

In his 2024 book, “Broken City,” Patrick explains what’s happening. “It turns out that the issue here is not the building, it’s the land under the building,” he argues. When a city allows for additional density, that changes the financial value of the dirt on the proposed building site. Thus, he reports, “If you go from allowing a one-storey building to allowing a 10-storey building, you get a 1,000-percent increase in the price of the land.”

“So the market is really a market-per-square-foot of the building,” he explains, “and by adding density, it doesn’t change the value of that square foot. What it does change is the value of the land underneath that building.”

“As the authorized use of land is increased,” Patrick elaborates, “the value of the land is going up and up and up, and it, unfortunately, goes up more or less in measure to what the market is allowing for that built price.”

The increase in land values created by up-zoning and densification are not going to the municipality, Patrick suggests. “That’s what’s so tragic about it, about the whole thing,” he contends, “the policy makers are saying (and I think many of them actually believe it), that this will help the community and it’s actually harming the community. It’s really helping the land speculators.”

And Patrick makes clear: The land speculator is different than the developer. “The developer is the good guy,” he says, chuckling. “They build a building. The building has social value. What doesn’t appear to have social value is the land, and the speculation part of it, which is preventing us from adjudicating land rights to the benefit of the community.”

“The way things are unfolding now,” he continues, “is that real estate nationally constitutes about 25 per cent of the gross domestic product in Canada, and that’s way too high a level. And it’s all structured on the idea that real estate values cannot go down … We’re seeing it here in Vancouver, where the real estate industry is begging for additional federal local and provincial assistance because of the downturn.”

The current collapse of the market for small condo units makes it obvious that the investor community has soured on the profit potential of this product, Patrick explains, stranding these assets in a financial limbo. “It is very strong proof that the driver for real estate in Canada has for many years been ‘housing as investment’ vs. ‘housing as homes,’” he says. “This distortion elevated the price of urban land making it impossible for developers to build housing for families at a price they can afford.”

Basically, we’re doing the wrong thing, Patrick concludes: “We’re going in and giving away land rights, hoping that that will lead to affordability. We shouldn’t do that, because it doesn’t work. But what we can do is give away land rights, insisting on affordability.”

• ‘They were just hell-bent’: Mayor battling Ottawa over ‘really left’ housing mandate
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