A Tory MP is facing pressure to step down from his post as parliamentary secretary to the minister of Foreign Affairs, after it was disclosed that he sent amorous emails to a reporter at China's Xinhua News Agency.
Bob Dechert, a Toronto-area MP, admitted Friday to sending the emails to Shi Rong, a correspondent with the state-controlled news outlet.
After the messages were leaked in a mass email last week, Dechert apologized and described his relationship with the female reporter as an "innocent" friendship.
All of the emails were sent in 2010, while Dechert was parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, but the scandal has led opposition MPs to call for him to resign from his current post at Foreign Affairs.
"I think it's pretty straightforward that he should offer his resignation for inappropriate conduct," NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said Monday.
Meanwhile Liberal MP John McCallum said Dechert's behaviour displayed a "lack of judgment."
Over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office said the government had accepted Dechert's explanation. And when Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was asked about the controversy on Sunday, he dismissed it as "ridiculous" and described the MP as "mild-mannered."
But former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya said the emails point to a potential security risk because Xinhua has close links to Chinese spy agencies.
"Everyone working in that organization is an agent of influence or an intelligence officer sent abroad for that purpose," he told Â鶹´«Ã½.
Xinhua was created by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s and was tasked with handling revolutionary propaganda. Today it's run by the Chinese government in Beijing and has offices throughout the world as well as across China.
Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who was posted to China, said there have been a number of previous incidents suggesting that Xinhua is a forum for spying. Some of those incidents have involved "young women who are seeking to have affectionate relationships with older, powerful men in foreign governments," he said.
Dechert, who is married, would not comment on the matter Monday.
In one of the emails, he thanked Shi for a photo, saying: "That look is so cute, i love it when you do that. Now, i miss you even more."
In another, he told Shi to watch a vote in the House of Commons, pledging to smile at her. He signs off from the email "love, bob."
Despite such messages, Dechert was able to pass a cabinet security check months later, according to a document obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
"One would expect the government to be briefing Parliamentarians and senior civil servants who have security clearance, and who are involved in policy, about the kinds of people they shouldn't have personal friendships with," Burton told CTV's Power Play on Monday.
"I think it would be prudent to step aside until the matter is fully cleared up," Burton said, suggesting that the RCMP hold an investigation to determine whether there was any malfeasance.
"When you go into this line of work it means that you can't have personal friendships with people who are representing foreign powers, who may seek to put you in a position where you feel obligated to assist them."
With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and files from The Canadian Press
