Media will have to register foreign-backed political messaging, says influence commissioner
Canada’s first foreign influence transparency commissioner says journalists and media organizations will need to register, but that listings will provide legitimacy to already transparent public communications.
“It’s not about the profession … it’s about the activity and making it transparent,” Anton Boegman said in an interview with The Hill Times on Aug. 13, nine days after what he described as “a good launch” of the Foreign Influence and Transparency Registry.
Boegman is now responsible for implementing the legal framework of Bill C-70, the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act, enacted in 2024, which established the registry and his office.
“The registry really focuses on transparency,” Boegman said. “By making foreign influence activities that are targeting Canadian political government processes transparent, it then kind of legitimizes those types of activities … not [to] create stigma or as evidence of wrongdoing.”
As the registry’s scope has been left intentionally broad and applies equally, media organizations and journalists will have a role and responsibility on both sides of that reporting “to minimize any loopholes that there may be in the structure of the scheme,” Boegman said.
“Communication professionals, journalists, and media organizations may be required to register,” Boegman confirmed, adding that the requirement for registration only exists if it meets all three elements set out in the legislation.
The legislation requires that anyone who enters into “arrangements with foreign principals” in relation to “political or governmental processes in Canada” disclose those activities to Boegman, who will maintain a public registry of that information.
Boegman said that, regardless of organization or profession, his office will be on the lookout for individuals and entities that work with a foreign government, a state-owned enterprise, or a foreign political organization to influence Canada’s political processes or government decision-making. These activities can include communicating with public office holders, such as elected officials and public servants, as well as with the public.
Anyone already engaged in an arrangement with a foreign entity to conduct influence activities before the launch will have until Oct. 3 to register with the commissioner’s office, while any new arrangements will need to be registered within 14 days.
Failure to comply can result in financial penalties ranging from $250 to $1-million, while more “serious transgressions,” Boegman said, could result in criminal offences carrying sentences of up to five years in prison or fines of up to $5-million. The RCMP would be responsible for those investigations.
“There may be situations where media [outlets] may need to register, just like there may be situations where businesses [or] communication professionals who are working for a foreign principal may need to register,” Boegman added. “It may capture activities that are already transparent, but it really is designed to make sure that there are no opportunities to skirt around this if an activity meets the requirements of the legislation.”
As one example, Boegman said that if a journalist or media outlet agreed to publish a foreign principal's views regarding a Canadian political process, whether it be an election, nomination race, referendum, governmental policy, or procurement decision, it would be required to register that activity.
“If they have specific views about an election that's coming up, and that is distributed in the media, that meets the criteria,” Boegman said. “They're acting in association with a foreign principal, and they're doing an influence activity to inform the public.”
The registry’s website explains that activities considered as “communicating with or disseminating information to the public” include published or streamed media interviews, press releases, statements, and media advisories.
As for whether his office will have the capacity to monitor third-language media and social media platforms in languages other than English and French, Boegman said his team will have it “when we need it.”
“It's important to have visibility into the networks and communication channels in Canada used to influence Canadians, even if they're in different languages,” Boegman said, adding that his office will have that capability internally, through its intelligence and law enforcement partners, or through outside contracting.
Lack of guidelines 'seems like a bureaucratic nightmare in the making,' says CAJ president
Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, told The Hill Times that the commissioner’s view of which journalistic activities would be covered by the registry as “over the top,” and “antithetical to how journalism actually works.”
“You can have as many registrations as you possibly need and want to do, but I don’t know what end that would actually serve,” said Jolly, who also serves as the managing director of the National NewsMedia Council of Canada. “If you’re casting such a wide net, you're going to get caught up in a bunch of garbage that is unnecessary to monitoring legitimate instances of foreign interference.”
“The idea of a free press is you pick up a phone, you can call somebody or message them, and they will message you back, or they can say 'no comment,' or 'go pound dirt,'” Jolly added. “This isn't collecting information for surreptitious purposes; it's serving the public's right to know, and I think we really need to make sure this [registry] is in line with traditional news-gathering practices.”
Beyond the troubling implications for journalists' ability to speak with international sources on background if they are required to register each interaction as lobbyists do, Jolly also noted the question of when journalists are expected to disclose those activities.
Jolly said that without clear guidelines, “it just seems like a bureaucratic nightmare in the making,” and another step in successive governments’ attempts to “bureaucratize journalism,” dating back to then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s list of approved reporters, communications staff's tightened grip over press conferences, or more recently, ministerial offices in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s (Nepean, Ont.) government judging whether to respond to media requests based on whether a reporter was with a qualified Canadian journalism organization.
“It’s not one of those blatant, egregious breaches of press freedom, but it will have the effect of bogging down the system and consuming what little time journalists do have in the day,” Jolly said. “Maybe in theory it makes sense, but I just don’t see how the execution will align with journalistic practice and how journalists go about their day-to-day work.”
‘Overly broad’ registry requirements could undermine effectiveness: CCLA
Since there have been documented instances of media organizations and online influencers implicated in foreign influence activities, including the September 2024 indictment of two Canadians accused of participating in an alleged Kremlin-backed influence campaign, the “core objective” of including journalists was an important aspect of the “legitimate object of this transparency legislation,” said the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s (CCLA) Tamir Israel.
However, the overly broad registration threshold and the commissioner’s interpretation of what kind of journalistic activity would need to be registered are “exceedingly troubling,” according to Israel, director of the CCLA’s privacy, surveillance, and technology program.
“We’ve previously flagged that this is framed extremely broadly in a way that could capture a lot of legitimate activity, including journalism and civil society advocacy,” Israel said. “Regardless of how it is ultimately interpreted by a court when we get to that stage … that could have a chilling effect on a lot of activity and be burdensome in a way that is not aligned with the actual objectives of the Act.”
Neither the government nor the commissioner’s recent guidance bulletins have “added a lot of clarity or the kind of narrowing principle that might help differentiate between what we all agree should be happening transparently and what is day-to-day journalism or advocacy,” Israel said.
“The government's obligation is to target this legislation and these regimes in ways that clearly match the actual harm they're trying to address, and not capture so much collateral activity unrelated to the registry's objective.”
In addition to the CCLA’s concerns over a potential chilling effect on Canadian organizations engaging with international partners due to the broad registration threshold, Israel said that it could also undermine the registry’s effectiveness.
“Because we’re casting such a broad net, the vast bulk of what's going to be in there is completely unrelated to any type of thing that we're actually concerned about,” Israel explained. “It's going to undermine the ability to find the areas where we do need transparency.”
Registry remains empty while office screens for fake, unnecessary submissions
Boegman said that since its launch, his office has received “a number of submissions,” but would not say how many had been received nor provide a timeline for when listings will begin appearing on the public registry. As of publication deadline, no registrations have been publicized.
Boegman explained that before any submissions can be published, his office's six-person registration team will need to verify their legitimacy.
“There could be some people trying to spoof the office or sending in registrations that are not really necessary alongside the valid ones,” Boegman explained. “It's really important that we have the ability to make sure everything's accurate and correct, and that only those that need to be reported are reported.”
Boegman’s office currently employs a total of 26 public servants, including a compliance and enforcement team, which he said may support validation efforts but will primarily focus on responding to and following up on “whistleblower” tips about potential influence activities, alongside its own monitoring efforts. He noted that the team will be “working with our national security partners to make use of their available resources.”
“They’re the ones who have their finger on the pulse of what’s going on, [and] doing the legwork to identify if an activity has a foreign influence component to it,” Boegman said. “They would also be doing any investigations that may lead to enforcement activity should we determine that there have been any instances of noncompliance or … if they're doing something potentially to obstruct the work of my office.”
The Hill Times