Canada ‘Actively Considering’ Foreign Agents Registry, Oliphant Says
The federal government is “actively considering” creating a foreign agents registry to track individuals who may be influencing Canada’s political process on behalf of foreign states such as China.
Robert Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Affairs Minister, told the House of Commons on Feb. 23 that the Liberal government is looking at precedent measures established by the United States and Australia.
“The government is focused on protecting Canadian democracy from foreign influence, and a registry of foreign agents is something that we are actively considering,” Oliphant said.
“We are aware that some of our allies, namely, the United States and Australia, already have foreign agent registries in place and we are studying that. We want to make sure that we have a Canadian solution for a Canadian problem.”
UK Needs New Law to Tackle ‘Lobbyists’ From Hostile States: Report
The UK needs to create new laws that force agents of “hostile, adversarial, and authoritarian states” to register and disclose their activities in the UK, a new report says.
The report (pdf), published on Wednesday by Conservative MP Bob Seely and foreign policy and national security think tank the Henry Jackson Society, said the UK’s archaic Lobbying Act is not capable of dealing with agents and proxies of foreign states.
“The UK is influence peddlers paradise at the moment,” Seely said on Wednesday during a report-launching webinar.
“Hostile state activity, since the 1990s has become more subtle, more complex in many ways, and more broad.”
The next big threat facing the Trudeau Liberals: China
Stephen Maher: China s increasing belligerence will require a tougher tone from Ottawa. The fate of the Liberal government may depend on it.
December 20, 2020 Trudeau responds to a question about China during a news conference outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on June 25, 2020 (CP/Adrian Wyld)
If you were to make a list of all the people who stand between Justin Trudeau and the majority government he dreams of, you’d have to put Xi Jinping, not Erin O’Toole at the top.
Trudeau looks like he is ready for a winning election campaign in the spring of 2021, but the president of China poses a real political threat.
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HONG KONG (SCMP) known to the world as a model free-market economy, as in Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose TV programme, or a city with a stunning skyline, as in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight – has joined Tibet and Xinjiang as one of China’s human rights trouble spots.
Australia, a long-time trade and investment partner of Hong Kong, went out of its way before 1997 to enact a special statute to grant Hong Kong’s economic and trade office in Sydney immunities and privileges.
Yet, after China enacted a national security law for Hong Kong, Australia asked its nationals to reconsider remaining in the city. Australians were warned they could be “at increased risk of detention on vaguely defined national security grounds”.
The Liberty Times Editorial: Australia-China spat is a warning
The relations between Australia and China have undergone abrupt changes.
In the past six months, their economic ties have taken a sharp downward turn after 10 years of close exchanges.
As part of Beijing’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy, a Chinese official last month posted a fake photograph on social media showing an Australian soldier killing an Afghan child.
Beijing is imposing anti-dumping tariffs of more than 200 percent on Australian wine.
China, which once claimed that it would “blind” the “Five Eyes,” an intelligence-sharing partnership comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, is now singling out Australia.