Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly confirms Canada denied a diplomatic visa application for a Chinese political operative last fall.

Beijing applied for a visa for a new position at its Ottawa embassy last October.

A source says Global Affairs concluded it was ”transparently not a diplomatic position” and was likely designed to carry out covert political and interference activities.

Appearing before a Commons committee studying foreign interference in Canadian elections, Joly sparred with Conservative MPs.

”One visa denied, not a single diplomat expelled,” Tory Michael Cooper pointed out.

”Hardly the actions of a government that takes Beijing’s interference seriously.”

Joly said expulsions come with ramifications for Canadian diplomats.

”For any expulsion there is an expulsion afterwards of us in China and right now our biggest challenge is to understand how China operates, how they plan, how they work,” adds the foreign affairs minister.

”More than ever we need eyes and ears on the ground.”