Canada’s Foreign Influence Transparency Registry

The Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act (FITAA) obliges individuals and entities that enter into an arrangement with a foreign principal (as described below), to register their arrangements and disclose any foreign influence activities undertaken where they are in relation to government or political processes in Canada. Relevant information from registration will be held in the Foreign Influence Transparency Registry and will be available to the Canadian public and all jurisdictions to consult freely.

A registration requirement exists where the following three criteria are all met:

1. Arrangement:
An arrangement between any individual or entity with a foreign principal, where that individual or entity acts at the direction of, or in association with, a foreign principal. A foreign principal includes a foreign power, foreign state, foreign entity, or foreign economic entity (e.g. state owned business) as defined in the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act (FISI Act).
2. Activities:

There are three types of activities which will each result in a registration requirement:

  • communication with a public office holder;
  • communication or dissemination of information to the public by any means, including social media; and
  • disbursement of money or items of value, or providing a service or the use of a facility.
3. Subject of the activity:

The activity that is undertaken must be in relation to a political or government process in Canada for there to be a registration obligation. A political or government process includes:

  • a parliamentary or legislative proceeding;
  • the development of a legislative proposal;
  • the development or amendment of any policy or program;
  • the making of a decision by a public office holder or government body, including the awarding of a contract;
  • the holding of an election or referendum; and,
  • the nomination of a candidate or the development of an electoral platform by a political party.

Exemptions

A limited number of exemptions are provided and include:

The legislation also provides that the Governor-in-Council (GIC) may, by regulations, make provisions for further exemptions to registration obligations.

Application to all levels of government in Canada

Legislation is intended to eventually apply to activities undertaken in relation to political or government processes at all levels of government in Canada, including municipal, provincial and territorial governments, and Indigenous governments. The coming into force date will be fixed by the GIC.

Administration

The FITAA will be overseen by an independent Commissioner appointed for up to seven years by the GIC, with appointment to be made after resolutions passed in both the Senate and House of Commons.

The Office of the Commissioner will be housed within Public Safety Canada, while administering and enforcing the Act independently from the Department and Minister. Similar models exist elsewhere in the Government of Canada and allow for a high degree of independence and professionalism in enforcement actions, while still allowing the government to leverage existing information sharing processes across departments and agencies.

Compliance

One of the key objectives of this legislation is to promote transparency for foreign influence activities in Canada. To promote compliance, and to deter non-compliance, certain compliance tools are available to the Commissioner. Modern compliance frameworks can include the need to address both administrative violations and offences. The recently enacted legislation relies primarily on administrative monetary penalties (AMP) to address administrative violations. However, more serious contraventions of the Act could be pursued as offences.

Three compliance provisions are established in the law and may be pursued as either violations or offences:

There is also an offence for obstructing the commissioner in the operation of the registry.

Where it is determined that a violation has occurred, the Commissioner may issue a Notice of Violation noting various information, such as the specific violation, the name of the individual or entity who failed to discharge their legal obligations under the Act, the proposed penalty, the right to pay the penalty or make representations. If no action is taken by the individual or entity, they will be deemed to have committed the violation. In that case, a Notice of Violation will be published, including the nature of the violation, the name of the person or entity found to be in violation, and the amount of the penalty imposed. The Commissioner may also make public the reasons for their decision. Recipients of Notices of Violation would be able to seek a Judicial Review before the Federal Court of Canada.

For more egregious contraventions of the legislation, the Commissioner can choose to refer the matter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to independently conduct an investigation of an offence of the FITAA and it would be up to the RCMP to decide whether to refer the matter to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to take appropriate actions.

Investigative tools and information sharing

The Commissioner will be able to receive complaints or information to assist them in fulfilling their duties. The Commissioner may exercise their discretion on whether to investigate or to refuse to conduct any investigation. To support investigations, the legislation allows the Commissioner to rely on a number of tools, including: investigative approaches; the ability to summon and enforce the attendance of persons before the Commissioner and compel them to give oral or written evidence on oath; and, the authority to compel persons to produce any documents or other things that the Commissioner considers relevant for the investigation.

To further support the Commissioner’s investigations, the Commissioner would be able to receive and share information with a number of Government of Canada partners, as well as provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous governments and groups in Canada. It is envisioned that this would include intelligence from the Security and Intelligence agencies in keeping with proper legal requirements and processes. The GIC would make regulations regarding the sharing of information to and from the Commissioner.

Reporting and Review

During the first year after a general election, a comprehensive review of this Act and its operation must be undertaken by the committee of the Senate or of the House of Commons. The committee must, within one year after the review is undertaken — or within any further period that the Senate or the House of Commons, as the case may be, authorizes — submit to the appropriate House a report on the review that includes a statement of any changes that the committee recommends.

In addition, the Commissioner must, within six months after the end of each fiscal year, submit to the Minister an annual report on the Commissioner’s activities during that year, which would then need to be tabled it in each House of Parliament within 15 sitting days.

Furthermore, the Commissioner’s activities would be reviewable by the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.

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