A foreign agents registry bill will be tabled later this year: source

The federal government will move forward with the creation of a registry of foreign agents to help prevent China and other countries from meddling in Canada's affairs, Radio-Canada has confirmed. 

As first reported in La Presse, Canada will table a bill either this summer, or if the Justice Department is not able to draft the legislation in time, in the fall, according to a government source. 

The federal government launched public consultations on the concept in March. That outreach effort closed May 9 and a government source said it showed Canadians broadly support the initiative. 

"There is a certain urgency to act," the source said. This will "protect Canadians and our democracy."

The Liberals have been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks over media reports alleging they did not act when warned that China was trying to interfere in the last two federal elections, and target Conservative MP Michael Chong.

This week, a non-binding Conservative motion that called for the expulsion of diplomats involved in foreign interference, a public inquiry and the establishment of a foreign agents registry passed the House with the support of NDP, Bloc Québécois and Green MPs.

On Monday, Canada expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after an intelligence report accused him of trying to target the family of Chong, who has been critical of China's treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.

Under a foreign agent registry, people who act on behalf of a foreign state to advance its goals would have to disclose their ties to the government employing them.

The idea of such a registry, which exists in Australia and the United States, is to make those dealings more transparent, with the possibility of fines or even prison time for failing to comply.

Learning from the U.S. 

During U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Ottawa last month, his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, discussed Canada establishing a foreign agent registry.

"We shared some of the practices and laws that we have in place to see if they would be of utility to our partners in Canada," he told Rosemary Barton Live at the time.

The U.S. Foreign Agent Registry Act has been in place since 1938 and was most recently used to shut down what authorities called a Chinese police station in lower Manhattan.

Two American citizens were charged with failing to register their work on behalf of the People's Republic of China.

Pushing back against the RCMP

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a parliamentary committee last week that the RCMP had shut down so-called police stations — facilities human rights groups have said are used to intimidate diaspora communities — in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

The RCMP said Friday it continues to actively investigate reports of criminal activity in relation to the so-called police stations.

Last week, Independent Sen. Yuen Pau Woo of B.C. stood up for two Montreal-area Chinese community organizations that have been accused by the RCMP of hosting secret Chinese government police stations.

Woo called for fairness, due process and the rule of law. He said the two community groups — which he said provide assistance to Quebec's Chinese community — have been found guilty of allegations that haven't been explained.

"It has caused members of the community to hesitate to come and seek services and they suffer — not you ... not the RCMP, but the individuals who would come here for services and who are hesitating to come because they worry about what might happen if they come here," Woo said.

In mid-March, the RCMP said the organization, along with Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud, which is located on Montreal's South Shore, hosted Chinese government agents who allegedly harassed members of the city's Chinese community.

The Spanish human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, which has identified more than 100 of the alleged police stations in more than 50 countries, has said the stations serve to "persuade" people who Chinese authorities claim are fugitives to return to China to face charges.

The Chinese government has denied those claims.

Woo pushed back against that Spanish group on Friday, asking why authorities were taking the word of a foreign organization, "making allegations, grave allegations, that impact Canadians."