Liberal-appointed Sen. Yuen Pau Woo (BC) recently expressed concerns about an “extreme anti-China sentiment” in Canada. . ChinaChina .According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Woo made the remarks over a week after a Chinese spy was expelled from the country and encouraged Canadians to show their opposition to a foreign agents’ registry by signing a petition..“Our better instincts have been compromised by the extreme anti-China sentiment that has spilled over into the toxic stigmatization of Canadians who are associated with the People’s Republic of China because of their ancestry, business ties or professional interests,” Woo wrote in an Ottawa periodical Policy Options magazine..The article was published on May 16, eight days after cabinet ordered the expulsion of Chinese spy Zhao Wei for targeting the family of a Member of Parliament. It was the first expulsion of a diplomat from Canada in five years..Sen. Woo disregarded the expulsion, ridiculed public protest against Communist Chinese agents in Canada and opposed a foreign agents' registry..“The recent media reporting of anonymous and unsubstantiated ‘intelligence’ reports has created a frenzy of innuendo against Chinese Canadian politicians, scholars and community leaders all in the name of national security,” wrote Woo. .“A combination of ignorance, ideological zeal, fear, group think and political cowardice has created the very conditions under which a foreign influence registry is most dangerous, and why we need to warn against it.”.The department of Public Safety on May 9 completed public consultations on a registry that would mandate public disclosure of any person paid to act on behalf of a foreign individual, corporation or state. .The all-party Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations, in a May 17 report A Threat to Canadian Sovereignty, recommended introducing a foreign registry..“Welcome to the registry of un-Canadian activities,” wrote Sen. Woo, who claimed the measure “would affect tens of thousands of Canadians who maintain links with the designated countries.” .Woo provided no reasoning for the claim. The existing US Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registry, in operation since 1938, currently lists 505 active registrants, primarily consisting of paid consultants and lobbyists..“The fundamental problem with this approach would not be not in the number of entities that end up in the registry, it would be in the stigmatization of those for whom the threat of registration is always hanging over their heads and the chill in civic discourse and political participation that would descend on whole communities,” Woo wrote..Through posts on Facebook and Twitter, Woo encouraged Canadians to support a petition that opposed the implementation of a foreign agents registry..“Sign the petition,” Woo wrote..Petition 4395, organized by petitioners in Coquitlam, BC, states a registry “poses a serious harassment and stigmatization risk for racialized communities” that may be unconstitutional. .“It could also create a chill within vulnerable communities leading them to withdraw from civic engagement and public service,” said the petition.
