Canadian government-funded think tank attacks The Canada Files and Daniel Dumbrill
Written by: Aidan Jonah
A think-tank funded by the Canadian, American and multiple European governments, along with Open Society Foundations, has attacked The Canada Files and Daniel Dumbrill for our dual-support for China and Palestine.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD)’s report immediately seeks to frame TCF and Dumbrill’s work as being connected to “Information operations by pro-CCP networks targeting Canada”, with its title. The report also seeks to frame Canadians challenging Canadian foreign policy as “targeting Canada”, instead of working to change pro-imperialism views of their fellow citizens. Said report was part of the ISD’s “Impacts of the Israel-Hamas Conflict on Online Harms in Canada” project, which “has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada”.
The Canada Files came under heavy scrutinization by the ISD, where they even chose to reference this organization’s dormant TikTok page with 15 followers. The ISD complains that “Many of their narratives have previously appeared in Chinese state media or could be labelled as ‘China-friendly’.” ISD is opposed to:
The Canada Files’ exposes on the CIA-front funding of the Uygur group which drove Canada’s parliament to falsely declare a genocide in Xinjiang
TCF’s reporting scrutinizing Chinese ‘foreign interference’ paranoia and the actors who’ve driven the paranoia, assisted it, and benefitted from it
TCF’s reporting and analysis on Canada’s support for Israel’s genocide
ISD complains that China has used Israel’s escalation of its genocide against Palestine, to showcase the difference between Western imperialism and China’s push for cooperation and multipolarity. For daring to point out this reality, The Canada Files draws the ISD’s ire:
“While the US is the main target of these accusations, pro-CCP actors have also extended this narrative to other Western countries. In Canada, The Canada Files has shared posts attributing the situation in Gaza to the Canadian government’s failure to address the war and accusing it of actively supporting the conflict.”
ISD goes on to say:
“By reporting and posting pro-Palestine content, the narratives support the CCP’s push for an alternate global power structure characterised by multipolarity, with China at the helm.”
Canadian YouTuber Daniel Dumbrill said to The Canada Files, that he also noticed “One of the key issues/patterns this report identifies is a theme in which online voices promote the idea of a multipolar world”.
The ISD’s rhetoric is almost identical to that of ‘disinformation expert’ and Nazi-apologist Marcus Kolga (of claiming Lenin was still alive in the 1940s fame). Kolga, together with an analyst of the Canadian government-funded Canadian Digital Media Research Network (CDMRN), produced a report, criticized Canadian Conservative support for factual narratives which also were stated by Russian government officials. In June 2022, University of Calgary Assistant Professor Jean-Christophe Boucher, whose research is funded “to the tune of $2.4 million, by Canada’s Department of National Defence”, also targeted the spreading of ‘Russian narratives’ in Canada, in a report.
Whether it be a ‘Russian narrative’ or a ‘Chinese narrative’, organizations and academics funded by Canada’s government want to shut up voices challenging the government’s perennial warmongering.
Yet, while this is the first major Canadian state-backed attack on The Canada Files, it is not for Canadian YouTuber Daniel Dumbrill. Dumbrill was targeted by Canada’s public broadcaster back in 2022, for rejecting smears about China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
In the ISD report they complain that in 2023, Dumbrill referenced a 2017 The Times of Israel article revealing Uygur militants fighting with jihadists in Syria, “look to Zionism as model for their homeland”. ISD also complains that Dumbrill challenged the CIA-front funded World Uyghur Congress for its condemnation of the Palestinian resistance’s October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. Uygur separatists, by large, support Israel, as it pursues its genocide against Palestine.
Dumbrill is supporting ‘Chinese narratives’, because he correctly points out how hypocritical the West is for claiming a Uygur genocide while supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestine.
Dumbrill says:
“For a country like Canada that is so used to being an obedient little lapdog to the US, the idea of America losing the unipolar power that allows for such a relationship to exist is the only thing more offensive than someone taking issue with the wholesale slaughter of the Palestinians.”
ISD concludes by complaining that “Pro-CCP actors have also sought to present China as a peacekeeper seeking to create harmony and cooperation between countries.” ISD states that:
“This is part of the CCP’s broader communication strategy to promote a ‘multipolar’ world in which China has a more significant foreign policy role.”
How The Canada Files’ and Dumbrill’s work is part of the Chinese government’s “broader communication strategy”, is not explained nor proven by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.
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