Critics say Liberals ‘slow walking’ foreign influence registry leaves Canada vulnerable ahead of referendum
Two years and one general election later, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the long-awaited foreign influence registry is “weeks” away from being operational. Yet, as his department is confident it is “very close to the finish line" after repeated missed deadlines and delays, critics say combatting foreign interference and transnational repression is “clearly not a priority” for the current Liberal government.
In an interview with The Hill Times last week—just shy of two years after Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, received royal assent on June 20, 2024, following all-party support for its expedited passage—Conservative MP Michael Cooper (St. Albert–Sturgeon River, Alta.), his party’s democratic reform critic, said it is “evident” the Liberals are “slow-walking” the promised Foreign Influence Transparency Registry.
“When Bill C-70 was passed, it had the full support of Conservatives, and it passed in a matter of weeks, but the responses that we have received over the two years since then have been basically much of the same excuses,” Cooper told The Hill Times on June 17, the day after receiving another round of “excuses” at committee.
Appearing before the Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) on June 16, for which Cooper serves as vice-chair, Public Safety Assistant Deputy Minister Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère, with the department’s national and cyber security branch, explained that work remains on the three components required for the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act (FITAA)—the part of C-70 that specifically deals with the creation and operation of the registry, as well as the role of the foreign interference commissioner—to come into force.
That work includes: the official appointment of the commissioner, the publication of the final regulations for the act’s implementation, and the development of a secure IT solution to support the registry through a third-party contract.
“I can say we have made significant progress on all three components,” Aubertin-Giguère told the committee last week.
On Feb. 3, Anandasangaree (Scarborough–Guildwood–Rouge Park, Ont.) notified the House of Commons that the federal government intended to appoint Anton Boegman, who served as British Columbia’s chief electoral officer from June 2018 to November 2025, to oversee the registry as Canada’s foreign influence watchdog.
At the time, department spokesperson Max Watson told The Hill Times that “foreign influence transparency remains a priority for the Government of Canada, and it will launch the registry in Spring 2026.”
Since then, Aubertin-Giguère said the “commissioner in waiting” has been serving as an executive adviser to support “operational readiness activities,” including consulting with the department on staffing decisions to ensure “a smooth stand-up of the office.” He added that 20 of the estimated 27 staff members the commissioner’s office will need have already been hired, and that “all essential positions … have been staffed or are near completion, and staff training is also in full swing.”
However, while Boegman was officially nominated and confirmed by both the House and Senate last March, Aubertin-Giguère explained that he would not be formally appointed to the commissioner role until the act had fully come into force upon completion of the other two components.
Just over a month before Boegman’s appointment, on Jan. 3, the proposed draft regulations were published in the Canada Gazette for a 30-day comment period. The proposed regulations set out requirements for implementing the FITAA, including details for establishing the registry and the information that organizations and individuals operating in Canada will need to provide when entering into an agreement with a foreign entity to influence Canadian institutions and officials.
The regulations also lay out the administrative monetary penalties for non-compliance or failing to register within 14 days of entering into an agreement, ranging from $50 to $1-million, as well as criminal penalties for more serious infractions, with a maximum fine of up to $5-million and/or up to five years in prison.
Aubertin-Giguère said those draft regulations had received 154 individual comments, with "repeated concern” expressed about both the upper and lower range of the monetary penalties being too low to serve as a strong enough deterrent for well-financed foreign actors, as well as concerns that the registry would be collecting “too much information” from registrants.
“We received extensive comments on the regulations that required us to revise certain substantial portions … that process takes time,” he told the committee.
As for the IT system, which the regulations estimate will cost $1.25-million in 2026 to develop and acquire, Aubertin-Giguère said work is “almost done.”
The “final steps,” he said, will require the publication of the final regulations, followed by an order-in-council to formally appoint Boegman, but he did not provide a specific timeline for when implementation would “cross the finish line.”
“The only thing I can say is that we're very, very close to the finish line,” Aubertin-Giguère said, adding that the department has “worked as fast as we could.” The more than two-year delivery timeline is “within international norms,” he said.
“I don't think we are late [or] delayed in any step, by any means,” Aubertin-Giguère.
During Question Period later that day on June 16, Cooper again asked Anandasangaree to provide a specific timeline for when the registry would be “finally and fully operational.”
In response, Anandasangaree said the government is “working towards the establishment of the regulations, and the commission will be up and running in the upcoming weeks”—the same answer the minister provided to The Hill Times at the end of May.
“We look forward to its operationalization; the work is being done right now,” Anandasangaree told The Hill Times during a press conference in the West Block foyer on May 27. “My understanding is that it will be operational within weeks.”
Speaking with The Hill Times, Cooper recognized that setting up the registry and finalizing the regulations “is complicated" work, but said he isn’t comforted by the new round of reassurances given the continued delays and missed deadlines.
“At first, they said they would set it up before the next election. Then they said by June [2025] … and then it was December, and then it was this spring, and now it's a matter of weeks,” Cooper said. “Every time they announce a new deadline, they miss it and just come up with a new one.”
“I can’t speak to the motivations, but this is clearly not a priority.”
Continued delays signal ‘open season’ to foreign interference actors, says NDP critic
During a press conference in the West Block foyer on June 17, NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s public safety and national security critic, also criticized Anandasangaree for repeatedly failing to deliver on his previously promised timelines.
Kwan said Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has “dropped the ball,” but that “Canadians are still subject to foreign interference attacks” from countries like China, Russia, and India, and, in the case of the upcoming referendum on Alberta separatism, from the United States, as well.
In an interview with CBC's The House in early May, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director Dan Rogers said that the referendum “is rife for amplification or for the sort of disinformation or foreign interference that we've seen from players like Russia in the past.”
A May 6 report authored by DisinfoWatch, the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, and CASiLabs also warned that Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading disinformation to “normalize” Alberta separatism, “amplify distrust, portray Canada as internally divided and politically unstable, and create uncertainty that could deter international investment.”
“This cannot be acceptable,” Kwan said, adding that, to protect Canada’s sovereignty, “our democratic institutions and our democratic rights need to be protected from foreign interference actors.”
In a follow-up interview, Kwan said that despite the concerns raised by CSIS and diaspora communities under direct threat from transnational repression and interference, she believes that Carney has been “slow walking” the registry.
Now, she said, alongside her suspicion that the delay is intended to avoid upsetting trade negotiations with China or India, she has to question whether the same considerations are being applied to the Americans.
Whatever the reason for the delay, Kwan said the excuses have not diminished the threats Canadians or the country's democratic institutions face, but are instead sending “a clear message to foreign interference actors that Canada is open season.”
“Alberta’s voter list has already been compromised,” Kwan said. “Is that not serious enough for the Carney government to take this seriously and get a move on?”
“This was the will of the previous Parliament, and Carney talked about how important this is during the campaign, but afterwards, he’s forgotten all about it,” Kwan said. “It clearly is not a priority.”
In response to questions from The Hill Times, Anandasangaree's office said the final regulations "should be gazetted soon," and that the registry "will be up and running later this summer."
"Canada takes allegations of foreign interference and transnational repression extremely seriously, and our priority remains the safety and security of Canadians," wrote Anandasangaree's spokesperson, Simon Lafortune. "Any form of intimidation, or transnational repression targeting individuals and communities in Canada is completely unacceptable, and anyone who threatens or harms people in Canada at the direction of, or in co-ordination with, a foreign state will face serious consequences under Canadian law."
The Hill Times