NDP MP Jenny Kwan and vocal critics of China are calling on the federal government to swiftly introduce — and on Parliament to quickly pass — foreign agent registry legislation to safeguard the next federal election.
In a new petition, Kwan and a coalition of human rights and pro-democracy groups are urging the House of Commons to pass the yet-to-be introduced legislation as soon as possible.
Under intense scrutiny over its handling of alleged Beijing-backed interference operations in the last two federal elections, the Liberal government launched public consultations on a proposed foreign agent registry in March.
A government source told CBC News in March that a bill will be tabled in the House of Commons later this year.
"This should have been done yesterday," Kwan told CBC News. "If we head into the next election without some safeguards and measures in place, then it is us, Canadians, who will actually suffer.
"The government has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table to try and get this work done."
Globe & Mail: Foreign interference a 'stain' on Canada's electoral process, Hogue inquiry concludes
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who CSIS said has been targeted by Beijing, said Ottawa must do more to protect Chinese-Canadians from intimidation and disinformation practices during election campaigns.
Ms. Kwan said she hopes Justice Hogue will recommend that election monitoring be removed from the hands of senior civil servants who answer to the prime minister.
“The report noted there is an systemic failure of communications by the government to those who are targeted or impacted by foreign-interference actors,” she said. “I strongly believe what we need is one independent agency to be mandated as the lead to take on this work.”
She also said Justice Hogue needs to hold Mr. Trudeau and his top aides to account in the final report on how his government handled CSIS intelligence that warned about China state interference and disinformation efforts.