NDP MP Jenny Kwan—yes, the one who is actually being targeted by foreign interference—implored in a petition of her own that a registry be implemented as soon as possible. She stated that comparing a Foreign Agent Registry to the racist Chinese Exclusion Act is a false comparison. The historic racist law targeted all Chinese people, a Foreign Agent Registry would apply to anyone, Canadian or not, who lobby on behalf of any foreign government.
I don’t think this is a race issue.
Parliament recommenced this past week—let’s see what is done to deal with this critical issue.
Knowledge is power, and we know that foreign interference is happening right here in Canada. Unlike Lennie, we need to disarm the threat we face before serious damage is inflicted on our democracy.
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.