Chinese Canadians say they want action on foreign agent registry, not lengthy public hearings

The head of a Canadian group that lobbies for democracy in Hong Kong says Chinese Canadians can't afford to wait for the months-long public hear‐ ings on foreign interfer‐ ence and is instead de‐ manding action on a for‐ eign agent registry.

"We have been talking about this long enough," said Cherie Wong, executive direc‐ tor of the Alliance Canada Hong Kong (ACHK). "We are tired, we want to see change and we want to see our com‐ munity members protected. The time for action is now."

Wong was speaking on CBC's Power and Politics Fri‐ day about her organization's most recent report, Murky Waters: Beijing's Influence in

Canadian Democratic and Electoral Process.

ACHK's report recom‐ mends the Canadian govern‐ ment adopt new legislation to create a public registry of indi‐ viduals, organizations and proxy-representatives actively acting on behalf of foreign principals in Canada.

WATCH | 'The time for action is now,' advocate says:

"We don't need another person to tell us there's for‐ eign interference, we don't need another person to study the tactics, we have studied it and we have presented it in this beautiful report," Wong told CBC's David Cochrane.

Last week, David Johnston, the Independent Special Rap‐ porteur on election interfer‐ ence, recommended against a public inquiry and instead will conduct a public hearing process.

According to Johnston's re‐ port, during these hearings he plans to hear from diaspora communities that are directly impacted by Beijing's alleged interference — a process Wong says will only delay ur‐ gent action needed to protect those in the community.

Special rapporteur de‐ bate distracting: advocate

The group's report comes after members of Parliament this week voted in favour of ousting Johnston from his mandate of independent Spe‐ cial Rapporteur on foreign in‐ terference.

Trudeau has dismissed claims that Johnston has a conflict of interest as political‐ ly motivated attacks.

The debate over Johnston and the public hearing gets in the way of urgent action needed to protect members of the diaspora community, according to Wong.

While ACHK reviewed John‐ ston's first report and ac‐ knowledged its consistency with some of their observa‐ tions, Wong says members of the Chinese-Canadian com‐ munity feel they have been talking about this for years without government action. She pointed out that her or‐ ganization has released re‐ ports on foreign interference in 2020, 2021 and the most re‐ cent one this year.

"We can't wait for a 12 to 16 month process to tell us something that we already know."

Wong's frustrations echo that of Cheuk Kwan, co-chair for the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.

"We've been saying the same [thing] for a long long time," Kwan told Power and Politics on the day Johnston's report came out. "I think the time to do consultation is over. We need to directly con‐ front the situation that we have in hand."

Kwan says he will partici‐ pate if asked to speak at the public hearings, but he isn't very hopeful that it will pro‐ duce different results or a deeper understanding of the problem.

Registry would foster trust, report says

Instead, he says the public registry the community is rec‐ ommending will help strengthen the measures that law enforcement can use to break the cycle of foreign in‐ terference and help re-estab‐ lish confidence in Canada's electoral system.

ACHK's report says such a registry would foster trust, re‐ silience and transparency to ensure Canadians have confi‐ dence in the country's demo‐ cratic institutions. It also calls for collaboration and co-oper‐ ation between intelligence agencies, law enforcement and the judicial system to streamline the process of con‐ verting intelligence into ad‐ missible evidence.

While the government says it will move forward with the creation of a foreign agent registry, if the Justice Depart‐ ment is not able to draft the legislation in time, it may not come until the fall.

Though she finds the gov‐ ernment's pledge encourag‐ ing, Wong is concerned that it's not enough.

"We need to see all of the political actors, all of the parti‐ san actors come together and create a long-term, sustain‐ able movement so that we're not only talking about foreign interference now, but we're continuously addressing new tactics and new issues that Canada will encounter in the future."

She says it's important to get commitment from those who can create legislation that diaspora communities, dissidents and the broader Canadian society are safe‐ guarded from foreign interfer‐ ence.

Despite the mounting de‐ bate surrounding Johnston as the choice for special rappor‐ teur, he is set to testify in Par‐ liament on Tuesday.