Parliamentary Committee Notes: Foreign Interference: Overview of Hostile Activities
Proposed Response
In recent years, Canada has seen an increase in the frequency and sophistication of foreign interference activities including by the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Russian Federation, India, Iran, and others seeking to advance their political, economic and security interests to the detriment of Canada's.
Foreign interference is a cross-cutting threat that can target Canada's democratic institutions, communities, economy, sovereignty, and critical infrastructure (including supply chains). Activities can include harassment and intimidation of diaspora communities in Canada, as well as cyber-incidents, disinformation campaigns, and other disruptive actions.
The Government of Canada will not tolerate these activities. We remain committed to combatting foreign interference by protecting people in Canada, safeguarding our democratic institutions, and promoting economic security all while ensuring transparency and respect for the rule of law.
We continue to work closely with our security and intelligence partners, including our allies, to counter foreign interference and lessen its impact on Canadians.
As part of these efforts, the Government of Canada:
- Conducts threat assessments to understand threats and to provide advice to decision-makers;
- Provides tools and guidance to people in Canada to help individuals better identify disinformation and mitigate its impact;
- Provides mechanisms for public reporting through the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) websites and national security threat phone lines;
- Engages with communities at risk in Canada to help them better protect themselves against foreign threats;
- Assists critical infrastructure owners and operators defend critical cyber security systems upon which Canadians rely;
- Engages with industry, academia and sectors of importance to inform them of the threats and to help them better understand how to protect their work;
- Uses the full range of diplomatic tools against states that perpetuate threats to Canadian interests;
- Coordinates and shares information on hostile state activities with Five Eyes partners, and other allies within organisations such as G7 and NATO;
- Adopts a holistic approach to protecting Canada's democratic institutions and practices from interference, as exemplified by the 2019 Plan to protect Canada's democracy; and,
- Enhances citizen resilience to disinformation by helping Canadians to become better informed about disinformation tactics and actors, and by enhancing transparency.
While the Government of Canada has a number of robust and longstanding initiatives in place to counter this pervasive threat, foreign interference remains a moving target.
To this end, in September 2023, the Government of Canada announced a Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions. The Commission's Initial Report, released on May 3, 2024, reaffirmed the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. But we must continue to work hard to keep it that way.
In recognition of this, on June 20, 2024, Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, received Royal Assent . The Act bolsters Canada's ability to detect and disrupt foreign interference and protect all people in Canada against this threat. Amendments include:
- The most significant updates to the CSIS Act since it was first brought into force in 1984;
- The modernization of foreign interference and transnational repression offences in the Security of Information Act and the sabotage offence in the Criminal Code; and
- The establishment of a standardized regime for handling sensitive information in federal administrative proceedings under the Canada Evidence Act.
The Countering Foreign Interference Act also introduces a new Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act to ensure transparency and accountability by requiring those who undertake foreign influence efforts on behalf of foreign principals to publicly register their activities.
Changes to the CSIS Act came-into-force immediately upon receiving Royal Assent, while changes to the Security of Information Act, the Criminal Code and the Canada Evidence Act came-into-force on August 19, 2024. The coming-into-force date of the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act will be set by the Governor-in-Council in the coming months.
These legislative developments build on the Government of Canada's recent investments in our counter-foreign interference capabilities. This includes funding through Budget 2023 to establish a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office at Public Safety Canada and funding for the RCMP to protect Canadians from harassment and intimidation by foreign actors, to increase its investigative capacity, and to more proactively engage with communities at greater risk of being targeted.
Background
Foreign Interference
Malign foreign interference (FI) includes activities undertaken by state or non-state actors that are harmful to Canada's interests and are clandestine or deceptive, or involve a threat to any person. Techniques used to conduct malign FI can include espionage, sabotage, illicit and corrupt financing, and other threat activities. Foreign states leverage these activities to advance their strategic interests including: domestic stability, seeking geopolitical influence, economic advancement, revision of the rules-based international order, and military advantage. These activities can be directed at Canadians, or residents of Canada, or against Canadian institutions to advance their strategic interests at the expense of our national interests and values.
Through its mandate to investigate threats to the security of Canada, including foreign interference, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has seen multiple instances of foreign states targeting Canadian institutions and communities. As well, the RCMP is aware that illegal state-backed activities are committed against Canadians and Canadian interests, and investigates these activities further to its mandate. The scope of potential FI activities can be broad, encompassing a range of techniques. These include human intelligence operations, the use of state-sponsored or foreign influenced media and disinformation campaigns, and the use of sophisticated cyber tools.
Several reports have highlighted the threat of FI in Canada and the need for further action. The 2019 Annual Report of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) outlined FI activities, including the targeting of Canadian institutions by threat actors. The NSICOP (2019) report pointed to Russia and China as being particularly active in Canada and made a number of recommendations for Canada to bolster its response to the threat of FI. In its 2023 Public Report, CSIS stated that FI activities in Canada continue to be sophisticated, persistent, and pervasive.
In September 2023, the Government of Canada announced the establishment of a Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions. In May 2024, the Public Inquiry Commission released an Initial Report, concluding that despite FI by some foreign states, these efforts did not undermine the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
Countering Foreign Interference Act
In March 2023, the Government of Canada announced the launch of consultations to guide the creation of a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry (FITR) in Canada. The consultations garnered over 1,000 responses from across Canada and included roundtable discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including Indigenous partners, Provincial/Territorial representatives, community groups, academia, business and the legal community informed the creation of the made-in-Canada Foreign Influence Transparency Registry. Building on the success of the FITR consultations, the Government of Canada subsequently launched an additional round of consultations to explore potential amendments to the CSIS Act, the Criminal Code, the Security of Information Act (SOIA) and the Canada Evidence Act in November 2023.
The culmination of these efforts brought forward Bill C-70, An Act respecting countering foreign interference (Countering Foreign Interference Act) to amend the CSIS Act, the SOIA, the Criminal Code and the Canada Evidence Act to: modernize the criminal law, including by introducing new foreign interference-related offences to better capture the evolving threat to Canada and vulnerable communities; provide CSIS with modernized authorities to be able to adequately protect all persons in Canada and Canadian institutions in a digital world; and improve the ways that the legal system deals with sensitive information in administrative and criminal proceedings. Moreover, the Countering Foreign Interference Act introduces the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act, designed to increase transparency by creating a registration obligation for individuals acting on behalf of foreign organizations that seek to influence activities within our political and governmental processes.
First tabled on May 6, 2024 Bill C-70 received Royal Assent on June 20, 2024. This piece of legislation will better equip Canada's national security departments and agencies, modernize criminal law to enable better responses to FI and bolster defence and deterrence against adversaries who seek to interfere in Canadian affairs by enhancing transparency.
Foreign Influence Transparency Registry
Foreign governments have established, legal, and legitimate channels of engagement with the Government of Canada. When done openly, this is a normal feature of rules-based international relations. However, when individuals or entities seek to exert influence on behalf of foreign governments in non-transparent ways, this can have serious consequences. These non-transparent influence activities undertaken on behalf of a foreign government are known as malign foreign influence, which is a subset of FI. Canada has long taken a hard stance against malign FI, however, work has been underway to strengthen our toolkit to counter this pervasive threat.
These activities could result in policy and legislation favourable to foreign interests over Canadian ones. They could also impact the content of available material that informs public opinions and the exercise of democratic rights. In some instances, this information could be disseminated by Canadians who may not be fully aware it originates from a foreign principal or entity. Unclear labelling of state-backed communications can produce public or media messaging that reinforces interests of adversarial states.
Malign foreign influence is a particularly complex challenge to address, in part because detection can be difficult and attribution can be made only after influence has been exerted. Some of Canada's closest allies and like-minded partners have brought forward additional measures, including legislative regimes, to specifically enhance foreign influence transparency in their respective countries. While Canada has some tools available aimed at increasing transparency, the introduction of the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act through the Countering Foreign Interference Act responds to the calls for the Government of Canada to consider new measures to bolster defenses to the growing threat.
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