Foreign interference | An independent commissioner to flush out malicious agents in the country

(Ottawa) The register of foreign agents of influence that the Trudeau government intends to establish will be headed by an independent commissioner who will have the power to impose heavy fines on people and organizations who engage in influence activities in the name from a foreign country or foreign entity without first registering.

In the most serious cases, the commissioner responsible for administering the register will also have the power to call on the police to carry out investigations, according to information obtained by The Press. These police investigations could thus lead to the filing of charges.

The Minister of Public Security, Dominic LeBlanc, must present in the coming weeks a bill aimed at creating a register of foreign agents of influence drawing on models that are already in force in allied countries such as the United States. United Kingdom and Australia.

Diplomats, consular officers and embassy employees as well as civil servants serving recognized international organizations would not be affected by this law to the extent that the activities they carry out in the country fall within the scope of their duties official, according to our information.

The creation of a registry is intended to combat “malicious and non-transparent foreign influence in Canada by establishing registration requirements for individuals or organizations acting at the direction of or in association with a foreign entity to engage in activities of foreign influence”, we can read in a document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailing the contours of this register.

The Press recently obtained this document under the Access to Information Act while the Commission on Foreign Interference began its hearings this week. The commission is looking into the interference activities that countries such as China, Russia and India engaged in to try to influence the results of the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

Creating a registry is considered by experts to be one of the best ways to counter foreign interference.

The document was written for Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison ahead of a June 2023 meeting with China’s Ambassador to Ottawa, Cong Peiwu. This information was not intended to be communicated to the Chinese diplomat, even if the issue of foreign interference was to be discussed during the meeting which aimed to take stock of relations between Canada and China.

Government sources confirmed to The Press that the creation of a commissioner position with significant powers is in the cards, as described in the document in question.

A register administered by a commissioner would also be presented as “a model made in Canada” bringing together the best practices of its main allies.

Double registration

The Trudeau government has been toying with the idea of ​​creating such a register for several months. In the spring, he even held public consultations on this subject. In October, a parliamentary committee called for the establishment of a register as quickly as possible. A bill to this effect was to be tabled last fall, but it was postponed.

Recently, Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office announced that the creation of a registry was part of a series of legislative changes planned in the coming months “to modernize and strengthen our national security laws.”

The Bloc Québécois could, however, overtake the government. Faced with Ottawa’s slowness to act, Bloc MP René Villemure intends to table a bill by the end of March in order to create this tool requested by numerous organizations for several months.

If he considers it useful to create a position of commissioner responsible for administering the register, Mr. Villemure affirmed that we must go even further. He believes that it is necessary to impose not only on foreign agents of influence the obligation to declare their activities, but also on the Canadian party they meet, regardless of whether the person is an MP or a senator, a civil servant or a professor in an educational establishment.

“I believe that basically, you have to be able to detect. This is why both parties must be required to be in the register. Non-compliance with this becomes a [infraction] “, explained Mr. Villemure, who is an expert on ethical issues.

He said there are several registries around the world, but none require dual registration. “My bill is basically written,” he said.

The Conservative Party had attempted to pass a bill to create a registry before the 2021 federal election. But it died on the order paper following the election call.

With the collaboration of William Leclerc, The Press