Carney’s Can-Do Government is far behind foreign register
Justice Marie-Josee Hogue, Commissioner of the Foreign Interference Commission, speaks after the final report of the investigation, in Ottawa, on January 28.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
In January, the public investigation by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue on foreign interference recommended to check politicians or the people they meet are mentioned in the register of Foreign Agent.
Good idea. But there is a towbar: there is still no register.
And there will be none for the end of 2025.
Seven months before Justice Hogue published her report, the Parliament had adopted the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act in June 2024. The register was the center.
All parties in the Lower House had merged to unanimously pass the bill. But despite the desire for action, the government had warned that it would take a whole year before the register was actually active.
That year has passed. There is still a long way to go.
The Treasury Board has not approved the financing for the new organization. Civil servants have not drawn up the regulations. And the government has not yet chosen the person who will lead the register – the first foreign influence of the transparency commissioner. And much of the work to set up the register is left to the decisions of the commissioner.
Editorial: the sad history of the register of foreign agents
More than a year after the legislation was hurried by the parliament, the register is still little more than a proposal that is stuck in the entrails of bureaucracy.
It is a worrying failure to follow on a generally supported priority of the public policy.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised that his government would get things done. The symbolism was all about action. But Mr Carney’s government is far behind a register, despite the extensive evidence that some foreign governments, in particular those of China and India, have tried to interfere in Canadian politics.
Agents of India were accused of involvement in the murder of Sikh-Canadian activist Hardep Singh Nijjar, and in a series of crimes as well as Canadians harass and intimidate. In 2023, the RCMP said that the unofficial Chinese police stations had concluded that it was assumed to keep an eye on the Chinese Canadians.
Cited information during the study by Justice Hogue raised various examples, including indications that Chinese Proxy’s foreign students had packed in a liberal nomination meeting of 2019 and who wanted to interfere with the conservative leadership race of 2022.
There is no reason to believe that the involvement has stopped.
The Register of Foreign Agent is supposed to be a tool to combat interference-not by checking the most Egregious cases, but rather by providing public information about those who do legal political work on behalf of foreign governments. This offers a level of transparency and makes it easier to prosecute non -registered agents of foreign governments.
It should also not be the most complicated organizations to build. The register is supposed to propose rules for reporting and keeping public registers. The ball has fallen.
What is wrong with the verification system of the liberals and what does this mean for the future?
Foreign interference is no longer the head priority for Mr Carney’s government, who has been consumed with US trade and a promise to set up major economic projects.
The Liberal Government saw months of internal unrest that started on December 16 last year, when the resignation of the then Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland caused a cabinet huffle, followed by the then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision of 6 January to resign, ending a new Premier and a federal election.
There have been three public safety ministers – Dominic Leblanc, David McGuinty and now Gary Anandasangaree – has adopted the legislation since parliament to set up the register.
Maybe that is a statement to be a little late. It is no excuse to hardly be a square.
And as Mr. Carney cannot make progress on things like the foreign register, it is not well for his ability to deliver his agenda. His promise to let the economy roll out with national projects is supposed to be fulfilled by a large project office that does not yet exist. His housing plan is supposed to be delivered by a non-created housing agency.
The prime minister has promised to build large, complicated, new government machines, and yet his government was unable to deliver a register.
In a world where the rates of US President Donald Trump dominate the concerns of Canadians, Mr Carney will probably not pay a political prize for that.
But for Canada, the problem of foreign interference has not disappeared.
