Hill Times: Feds can’t continue to delay ‘heavy lifting’ on foreign interference response, says NDP MP Jenny Kwan

Canada has only begun to scratch the surface in addressing the threat foreign interference poses to its citizens and their democracy, says NDP MP Jenny Kwan. And while the government’s efforts to provide greater transparency during the last federal election is the most effective defence, national intelligence and disinformation experts say there will still be plenty of work and educational “growing pains” before Canadians and their institutions can fully acclimatize and respond responsibly.

Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.) said that while she appreciates the efforts the government has made to address the issue of foreign interference before and during the election, “there’s much more work to do and we haven’t even begun the heavy lifting.”

However, Kwan said that so far, Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has not demonstrated that he views foreign interference or the “very real danger” transnational repression poses to Canadians as a priority. 

Nearly a year after Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, received royal assent last June following unanimous consent from opposition parties, Kwan noted that Carney’s government is already signalling the promised foreign influence registry is not on the fast track.

Alongside amendments to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Act, the Security of Information Act, the Canada Evidence Act, and the Criminal Code, Bill C-70 established a new Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act, which allows for the creation of a foreign agents’ registry to be administered by an independent transparency commissioner. 

Those acting on behalf of a foreign state would be required to register within 14 days of entering into an agreement, and failure to do so or being found in contravention of the act could result in a fine of up to $5-million and/or up to five years in prison.

Before the bill was passed, government officials estimated that implementing the registry would take “up to a year.” However, last week, Public Safety officials informed CBC News that several steps remain before full implementation, and they did not provide an updated timeline for when this would happen.

“Officials are working to ensure that the proper steps are taken to develop the necessary regulations, and to set up the office, including the appointment of the commissioner, while also building the IT infrastructure for a best-in-class registry,” spokesperson Max Watson said in a statement to the CBC.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree (Scarborough–Guildwood–Rouge Park, Ont.) did not respond to The Hill Times’ request for comment by publication deadline. 

Kwan told The Hill Times she is perturbed by the failure of former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Carney to implement the registry before the election, and her frustration is only increasing with the apparent further delay. 

“It’s not like they didn’t have the tools to get this done,” Kwan said, noting the exceptional level of co-operation from all parties toward the bill’s passage.

“The point of that co-operation was to get the registry in place as soon as possible, but despite that effort and the urgency for action, the previous prime minister didn’t do the work,” Kwan said. “The current prime minister’s further delay sends the message that foreign interference is not a priority.” 

Kwan said the lack of urgency for the registry is also the second indication that Carney isn’t seriously prioritizing foreign interference. 

Kwan said the first was his decision to initially defend then-Liberal incumbent candidate for Markham–Unionville, Ont., Paul Chiang, after comments resurfaced from a January Chinese-language media conference, in which he made light of the HK$1-million (CAD$183,000) bounty placed on the head of his then-Conservative competitor Joe Tay. 

“To everyone here, you can claim the one-million-dollar bounty if you bring him to Toronto’s Chinese Consulate,” Chiang reportedly told a room full of Chinese-language journalists earlier this year. 

Last December, Hong Kong police issued the bounty after charging Tay with alleged violations of China’s national security laws for criticizing the city’s now Beijing-controlled government on his YouTube channel.

While Chiang’s comments resurfaced on March 28, Carney only responded to questions about them during a press conference three days later. The prime minister initially attempted to defend the comments as a “teachable moment.”

“This is a person of integrity who served his community, as a senior police officer for … more than a quarter of a century,” Carney told reporters on March 31. “He’s made his apology. He’s made it to the public, he’s made it to the individual concerned, he’s made it directly to me, and he’s going to continue with his candidacy. He has my confidence.”

However, later that evening, Chiang announced he would be standing aside so as not to “cause a distraction.’’

While Chiang eventually resigned once the public pressure became too great, Kwan said Carney should have been willing to make the decision himself before it became untenable to do otherwise. 

“Even if he made that comment as a joke, it wasn’t funny,” Kwan said. “For Prime Minister Carney to have defended that for so long, until really, there was a chorus from the community calling for responsible action, it was a telling and disturbing view of Carney’s approach to the foreign interference file.”

“Transnational repression is real, and the government needs to take stronger measures and send a clear message to victims that the Canadian government stands with them.”

Former CSIS analyst Stephanie Carvin, an associate professor of international affairs at Carleton University, told The Hill Times that while she agrees the work to address and safeguard Canadian institutions from foreign interference is “nowhere near finished,” each time the government is forced to address it “we get a little bit better at it.” 

“We’ve learned quite a bit since the government started trying to monitor these things,” Carvin said, noting that while this past election was the first in which the public was “hyper-aware,” the government had made efforts to monitor foreign interference in the previous two campaigns.

Carvin said one notable improvement in this election was the weekly briefings conducted by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force, which offered updates to the media and the public on identifiable and attributable instances of attempted interference. 

Carvin said that while she is certain those briefings highlighted just a fraction of the identifiable threats, it had been wise for the task force to limit itself to raising those instances that could be attributed to a foreign actor to balance the need for transparency against fuelling attempts to undermine Canadians’ faith in their politicians and democratic institutions.

Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory at McGill University, said while there had been observable online disinformation campaigns attempting to boost or denigrate individual politicians or political parties, many were far more difficult to attribute. Without more solid attribution, raising those campaigns with the broader public would have risked amplifying the disinformation and weaponizing any alleged links between the campaign and its political beneficiaries, he said.

“This was the first election where people were highly attentive and monitoring the social media space for any sign of foreign interference, so that’s kind of heartening, but that also made it more likely to be weaponized politically,” Bridgman said, noting that any social media posts in a language other than French or English in support of any candidate or party were increasingly viewed with suspicion. 

Bridgman said that weaponization had been at its worst early in the campaign following the first few task force briefings, but as they became more routine, there was a notable improvement as Canadians became more accustomed to processing the information.

“It’s a new political battleground, but over time, Canadians will become more acclimatized to it and will be better able to contextualize it themselves,” Bridgman said. “There’s going to be growing pains, but I’m optimistic we’re moving in the right direction.”

The Hill Times

https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/05/28/feds-cant-continue-to-delay-heavy-lifting-on-foreign-interference-response-says-ndp-mp-jenny-kwan/461739/