Sam Cooper (journalist)

Sam Cooper is a Canadian investigative journalist and author known for his controversial coverage of Canada–China relations and tensions.

He has worked for Postmedia newspapers and gained much prominence while working for Global News, where his coverage focused on China's undue influence in Canadian government institution, and money laundering in Canada, alleging a relationship between foreign states colluding with organized crime.^[1] He turned much of his reporting into his controversial 2021 book Wilful Blindness.^[2] Some of his most sensational allegations have been discredited or retracted, and he has been severely criticized by pundits and peers alike for making serious allegations without properly verifying his sources.

In April 2020, Cooper reported for Global News efforts by Chinese consulates in Canada and worldwide to stockpile personal protective equipment at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic while suppressing information about the full extent of the pandemic in China. The report highlights the efforts as part of the diaspora control strategy being pursued by China's United Front Work Department and alleged ties between "murky (Chinese Communist Party) United Front networks" and subjects of various investigations by Canadian law enforcement authorities.^[3]

In response, a local supporter of Joyce Murray, a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) from Vancouver (a city with one of the largest Chinese immigrants community in Canada) and a member of the Prime Minister Trudeau's cabinet, posted on the WeChat group for Murray's local supporters a link to another organization's fundraising drive for a potential class action lawsuit against Cooper and Global. The action prompted Conservative MP Rosemarie Falk to press Murray for an apology to Cooper.^[4] The organization that initiated the fundraising later issued a statement stating "We are not attacking the integrity of Mr. Sam Cooper or calling him a racist," but expressed its members "deep concern about Mr. Cooper’s unbalanced article." Murray stated in response to Falk she does not share the views of the poster, and distanced herself for any organized attack against a journalist.^[4][5]

Cooper turned much of his reporting into the controversial book Wilful Blindness, which highlights the influence of the Chinese state in Vancouver and alleges Canadian officials intentionally ignored money laundering linked to organized crime based out of China.^[6] His work builds on allegations made in the Canadian-intelligence report Project Sidewinder, that organized crime organizations based out of China, with involvement of United Front Work Department, laundered fentanyl drug money through Vancouver area casinos such as the Parq and River Rocks casino. The work alleges that such activities led to corruption of government agencies, spies, influencers, and Canadian society, and attributed it for the Vancouver's housing market bubble and destabilization of the western world with the opioid epidemic.^[7][8]

The book received polarized reviews. Cooper was credited for his dogged work in painting a powerful narrative of a foreign organized crime network being enabled by institutionalized negligence and corruption.^[8][2] Critics see his work as fearmongering yellow journalism. Acknowledging valid concerns over undue influence of the Chinese state in Canadian society and government institutions, critics questioned the factual accuracy of Cooper's work and pointed to his repeated use of sensational but often overblown and unproven propositions by unnamed sources to torque up his biased views toward matters relating to China.^[9][10][11]

In 2022 during the promotion for his book Wilful Blindness, Cooper alleges Yuen Pau Woo, a Canadian senator appointed by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, lobbied on behalf of Beijing, as well as organized an attack on the credibility of Andy Yan, an academic at Simon Fraser University. Woo has publicly accused Cooper of failing to fact check the allegations, nor seeking his response before making said allegations.^[12]

In March 2023, Cooper published two explosive reports citing CSIS sources alleging politicians having accepted electoral favours from organizations funded or coordinated by the Chinese state and acting as witting affiliates" for Chinese interference.^[13] In the latter of the report, Cooper specifically named Han Dong, a Liberal MP representing a Toronto district with large Chinese population and who himself was an immigrant from China, and alleged that he had advised a Chinese diplomat to extend the detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, two Canadian held by China as political hostage.^[14]

In the aftermath of the reporting, various investigations have begun, including by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), by NSICOP, and parliamentary investigations^[15] including ultimately the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions conducted by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue of the Quebec Court of Appeal.

The Globe and Mail, which had collaborated with Global in earlier report on the matter, later revealed it had previously received the same intelligence regarding Han Dong's alleged conversation with a Chinese diplomat, but did not report it at the time as it was unable to authenticate the content.^[16]

In response to a libel lawsuit by Dong, Cooper under examination admitted that the reported allegations were merely relaying what the CSIS source believed about matters and that he did not verify whether the allegations were true.^[17] He further admitted that none of the documents he reviewed named Dong or alleged Dong to have advocated for the continued detention, and that his retained notes do not contain any reference to Dong having advised a Chinese diplomat to “delay” and “hold off” freeing the detained Canadians.^[18] In dismissing Global's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Justice Paul Perell of the Ontario Superior Court found that Global News and Cooper had no evidence to show they have "exercised the appropriate level of investigation before dropping a cluster bomb on Dong’s reputation", concluding that "(t)here is no dispute, and indeed, it is indisputable that the Defendants’ reports slandered Dong. There is no dispute, and indeed, it is indisputable that the Defendants’ reports caused immense damage to Dong, his reputation, and to his career prospects."^[18][19]

In the Public Inquiry final report, Justice Hogue concluded that classified intelligence corroborated Dong's denial of Cooper's allegation, and that the evidence shows that Dong did not suggest prolonging the detention of the two Canadian.^[20]

Cooper left Global by June 2024, and his reporting was severely criticized by reporters and national security commentators for failing to verify his sources' claims.^[21][22][23] As part of a 2025 settlement with Dong, Global News issued a statement accepting the findings of the final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference, which found that classified intelligence corroborated Dong's denial of Cooper's reporting.^[24]

In September 2024, Cooper published a report in The Bureau claiming to show video evidence of Bill Majcher, a former RCMP undercover operative accused of assisting Chinese intelligence, meeting with drug trafficker Tse Chi Lop in a Macau casino. Journalist Nury Vittachi noted that the purported video footage actually was from the 2014 action-comedy movie From Vegas to Macau, starring Chow Yun-fat.^[25] The article was subsequently retracted by Cooper.^[26]