Liberals provide no timeline for foreign agents registry as House of Commons returns
Global News
The Canadian government has now commissioned an independent inquiry into foreign interference in domestic politics, alongside several parliamentary probes.
The Liberal government is not providing a timeline for a new registry that would require foreign agents to disclose their activities in Canada as the House of Commons returns from its summer hiatus.
In March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to bring in new legislation to force those working on behalf of foreign governments in Canada to disclose their activities. The promise was made after months of revelations from Global News and the Globe and Mail about the scope of the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged meddling in Canadian affairs.
Public consultations on the “foreign influence transparency registry” ended on May 9, and former Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said in April it was “urgent” to fix gaps in Canada’s defences against foreign interference operations before the next federal election.
“It is urgent, yes. But there are tangible recommendations that we can now use,” Mendicino told a House of Commons committee then. But four months after consultations closed there is no hint of a proposal from Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s office.
“There are still consultations that need to occur, discussions that need to occur,” said a government source, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
When reminded that consultations ended in early May, the source said the government was committed to “getting this right” and that a foreign agents registry is one piece of a larger government push to crack down on foreign influence operations.
“There are a lot of moving pieces. There’s a lot on the go in the national security space at the moment,” the source said.
Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and a longtime national security scholar, said that the lack of movement on the registry could provide ammunition for opposition politicians.
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