Parliamentary Committee Notes: Foreign Interference: The Countering Foreign Interference Act
Issue
On October 18, 2024, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) moved to undertake a study on electoral interference, and violent criminal activities carried out by agents of the Government of India.
Proposed Response
- The Government of Canada has observed a significant increase in the sophistication, persistence, and pervasiveness of foreign interference from foreign states, and their proxies, who seek to advance their strategic interests to the detriment of Canada and our people.
- Most recently, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) took the unprecedented step of publicly disclosing the details of ongoing investigations into the involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activity in Canada.
- The Government of Canada takes the threats to South Asian communities seriously and does not tolerate foreign interference and criminal activity.
- The Countering Foreign Interference Act, which received Royal Assent in June 2024, further strengthens our toolkit by adopting legislative amendments to enhance the government’s ability to detect and disrupt foreign interference, and protect people in Canada; building resilience against threats posed by foreign interference; and, enabling the creation of a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry.
- The Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act was designed to increase transparency by creating registration obligations for individuals acting at the direction of or in association with foreign principals that seek to influence activities within our political and governmental processes.
- The Registry will add an additional layer of protection and deterrence against those threat actors who seek to obfuscate their links to foreign governments and proxies.
If Pressed on FITAA:
- The registry is not designed to prohibit any underlying conduct, nor to stigmatize persons or organizations that may be registered on it. It is designed to increase transparency in public affairs.
- In designing the FITAA, we looked very closely at approaches taken by our allies, and considered how best to develop a built-for-Canada solution.
- The registry is country agnostic, meaning that any individual or entity in an arrangement with a foreign principal, regardless of the country, may be required to register.
If Pressed on FITAA coming into force:
- The Government of Canada continues to advance work to operationalize FITAA and build the office of the Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner.
- The FITAA will be administered by an independent Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner who will be responsible for educating the public and issuing interpretation guidelines and bulletins regarding how the law will apply to certain sectors to support compliance.
- Application of the law will be up to the Commissioner, who will exercise independent enforcement authority for the statute.
Background
Foreign Interference
Foreign interference (FI) includes activities undertaken by state or non-state actors that are harmful to Canada's interests and are clandestine or deceptive, or involve a threat to any person. Foreign states use FI to advance their strategic interests including: domestic stability, seeking geopolitical influence, economic advancement, revision of the rules-based international order, and military advantage. These activities can be directed at Canadians, or residents of Canada, or against Canadian institutions to advance their strategic interests at the expense of our national interests and values.
Countering Foreign Interference Act
On June 20, 2024, An Act respecting countering foreign interference received Royal Assent with support from all major political parties. The Countering Foreign Interference Act seeks to enhance the government’s ability to detect and disrupt foreign interference, and to protect Canadian institutions and all people in Canada against this threat.
Parts One to Three of the Act, already in force, include amendments to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act (formerly the Security of Information Act), the Criminal Code and the Canada Evidence Act to:
- modernize the criminal law, including by introducing new foreign interference-related offences to better capture the evolving threat to Canada and vulnerable communities;
- provide the Canadian Security Intelligence Service with modernized authorities to be able to adequately protect all persons in Canada and Canadian institutions in a digital world. This includes the legal ability to share threat information with a wider set of Canadian partners than the federal government; and
- improve the ways that the legal system deals with sensitive information in administrative and criminal proceedings.
Part Four of the Act introduces the country-agnostic Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act (FITAA) to establish a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry (FITR) and promote transparency and accountability from those who undertake influence activities on behalf of foreign principals in Canada. Upon coming into-force, the FITAA will impose an obligation on entities that enter into an arrangement with a foreign principal to register their arrangements and disclose foreign influence activities in relation to government or political processes in Canada.
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