Diaspora communities are calling on the Trudeau government to implement a foreign agent registry before the next general election citing fears that bad actors are poised to meddle in Canada’s democracy again.
Despite Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue, who oversaw the Foreign Interference Commission, calling for the government to heed its 51 recommendations and implement them before the next election, little, if anything, has been done.
The recommendations include a foreign influence transparency registry that would require individuals acting as agents for foreign powers to register with the federal government to dissuade any dubious activity.
However, Ottawa has yet to appoint a commissioner to oversee the registry or even explain how it would work to the general public. Without using the registry, foreign powers can impose tactics to sway elections by getting foreign nationals to vote on their behalf with less ability to trace their ties back outside of the country. Whereas a registration system would allow for criminal penalties and monetary fines to be issued to individuals caught violating Canada’s electoral system.
Legislation to have the registry created was passed last year. However, Ottawa’s refusal to act on the registry has created a “vacuum” in the system, Gloria Fung, convener of the Canadian Coalition for a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry told reporters during a press conference in Ottawa last week.
The coalition includes over 30 multicultural, human rights and policy organizations.
“Where is that registry? What does that registry look like, and what are the requirements for people to follow the law?” said Fung, who also served as the former president of Canada-Hong Kong Link.
“We have none of that information,” she said. Fung appeared alongside several other representatives of diaspora groups who share concerns about election meddling by foreign actors, including members of the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group and the Eastern European Council in Canada.
Canada’s next general election is now potentially only a matter of weeks away, increasing the concerns of the coalition.
“With looming elections and ongoing nominations and processes where we’ve already witnessed foreign interference, Canada cannot afford any delays in response to these threats,” said Marcus Kolga, president of the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada.
Legislation known as Bill C-70 was created in the wake of allegations that foreign interference played a role in the last two general elections to allow for authorities to mitigate future attempts to meddle in the process.
Henry Chan, co-director of Saskatchewan Stands with Hong Kong, called the current nomination process a “gong show” with “no rules at all.”
“Right now, we see that a lot of the nominations are being managed by different groups, including foreign regimes like China, India, Russia etc.,” said Chan.
“So no matter how you vote, you’ll get the person that the regime wants.”
Such known avenues include covertly influencing the outcome of a candidate nomination contest to then wield influence inside the government.
Hogue released the foreign interference inquiry’s final report in January, which called for a “single, highly visible and easily accessible point of contact or hotline” for reporting foreign interference to the government.
However, over a month later, the hotline is still “not there yet,” noted Fung.
“So what is the government doing?” asked Fung. “Why is our government delaying the process of implementation?”
An issue that the coalition would like to see Ottawa take more seriously is the reality that dissidents who speak out against authoritarian regimes are often targeted as a result despite living in Canada.
Additionally, family members of those who speak out in Canada are often also targeted by those same regimes back in their home country, making them particularly vulnerable to domestic whistleblowers.
The group said that a central reporting system must allow for people to communicate information with the government anonymously, with multilingual supports to broaden the scope of diaspora community members who can report.