Foreign Minister John Baird has dismissed as "ridiculous" the furor over email exchanges between his parliamentary secretary and a Chinese journalist.
Conservative MP Bob Dechert, who has served as No. 2 to Baird since May, admitted sending flirtatious emails to Shi Rong, a Toronto-based correspondent with the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua. Both are married. One message that appears to have been sent from Dechert's Parliament Hill account reads: "You are so beautiful. I really like that picture of you by the water with your cheeks puffed. That look is so cute. I love it when you do that. Now I miss you even more." It is signed, "Bob Dechert, MP" and dated April 17, 2010.
Baird said Dechert would not be fired and dismissed the controversy.
The foreign minister's reaction is disturbing, said David Harris, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service chief planner. "It suggests that this type of matter is not taken with adequate seriousness."
The government has an obligation to conduct an investigation to ensure there really was no wrongdoing, he added, and that national security wasn't compromised.
Simply taking Dechert's word for it, Harris argued, is unacceptable as the MP's judgment and credibility are already in question.
The Xinhua News Agency has three bureaus in Canada and continues to be a major propaganda arm for the Chinese government.
It is also considered a vital source of intelligence gathering.
Wenran Jiang of the University of Alberta said the optics of Dechert's emails to Rong are not good, particularly as he is married and holds a foreign policy portfolio.
"Because of the woman's background, it's a stupid [thing to do]," he said.
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