The federal government has tabled legislation that would shake up how Canada’s spy agency collects and shares intelligence, introduce new foreign interference offences and launch a long-anticipated foreign influence transparency registry.
The legislation, Bill C-70, comes just days after a public inquiry said attempts by other countries to meddle in Canada’s past two elections undermined Canadians’ trust in democracy.
The bill would broaden the sabotage section in the Criminal Code to prevent attacks on critical infrastructure.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has long called for new powers and the ability to share information with targets of interference apart from the government, such as researchers, businesses and Indigenous communities.
The bill, if passed, would allow CSIS to disclose sensitive information beyond the federal government in the interest of building up resiliency against foreign interference.
The legislation proposes a new foreign influence transparency registry, which would require certain individuals to register with the federal government to help guard against influence activities. Those caught violating the registry law could risk millions of dollars in financial penalties and prison time. Diplomats would be exempt.
The bill arrives just days after the public inquiry investigating foreign meddling issued its first report, which found foreign interference “undermined the right of voters to have an electoral ecosystem free from coercion or covert influence.”
Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who is leading the inquiry, stressed that attempts at foreign interference did not affect which political party formed the government in the 2019 and 2021 general elections.
Hogue said none of the evidence she’s heard to date suggests officials acted in “bad faith” or that information was deliberately and improperly withheld.
“But it does suggest that on some occasions, information related to foreign interference did not reach its intended recipient, while on others the information was not properly understood by those who received it,” she wrote.
“These are serious issues that need to be investigated and considered.”