Federal legislation to stop foreign interference needs a complete overhaul before it is even passed, a democratic watchdog says.Democracy Watch (DWatch) filed a summary submission and more comprehensive submission with the House of Commons Public Safety and National Security Committee to list key changes needed to Bill C-70 which proposes a new Foreign Influence Registry (FIR), and a new Foreign Influence Transparency (FIT) Commissioner.DWatch co-founder Duff Conacher maintains Ottawa isn't doing nearly enough.“Many other changes are needed beyond a foreign agent registry to actually stop foreign interference. Last year the lobbying commissioner gutted ethical lobbying rules, and MPs added a loophole to their ethics code so foreign-sponsored lobby groups can sponsor intern spies in their offices," Conacher said in a statement.“If Bill C-70 is not changed in key ways, the new foreign interference commissioner will be another partisan, ineffective, secretive and unaccountable lapdog."DWatch warns unless the legislation is amended, foreign agents will not be required to register and disclose the following activities in the registry:Activities undertaken by businesses and organizations;Activities to interfere in political party leadership contests;Communications with nomination contestants and party leadership contestants who are not MPs or Cabinet ministers;Communications with election candidates who are not Cabinet ministers;Communications with people who have been elected as MPs or appointed as Senators but have not yet taken office;Communications with territorial politicians and public officials, and provincial and municipal government appointees;Communications with judges and lieutenant governors;A foreign agent using a lobbyist as a “proxy” for their influence activities (many changes are needed to the federal Lobbying Act and provincial, territorial and municipal lobbying laws to prevent this by prohibiting secret lobbying);A foreign agent using staff, volunteers, friends, family members and close associates of contestants, candidates and parties as a “proxy” for their secret influence activities;In addition, Bill C-70 gives the federal Cabinet dangerously broad discretion to:Exclude foreign interference arrangements from the list of prohibited activities that are also required to be disclosed;Exclude public officials from the list of people foreign agents are required to disclose if they communicate with them;Limit the amount of information required to be disclosed in the FIR and to not require regular updates;Decide when the provisions that establish the FIT Commissioner and the FIR will come into force, and be extended to provincial, municipal and Indigenous politicians and public officials and, if amended, also territorial politicians and public officials (there are no deadlines in the Bill).DWatch says if key changes are not made to Bill C-70, the proposed new FIT Commissioner will lack independence, not be effective, and will be allowed to bury cases.Partisan and political because they will be handpicked behind closed doors by the ruling party Cabinet, with little input from opposition parties;Not necessarily serving a full seven-year term because Cabinet can shorten it;Encouraged to please the ruling party towards the end of their term because the ruling party Cabinet has the sole power to re-appoint them;Ineffective because they will not be required to do regular, unannounced audits to catch violators;Secretive because they will not be required to issue public rulings with reasons on every situation they review, and;Unaccountable because it is unclear in Bill C-70 whether their decisions and actions can be challenged in court if they fail to do their job properly;Also re: enforcement, given the RCMP and FINTRAC lack independence from the ruling party Cabinet, and both agencies have been ineffective;Democracy Watch’s submission calls for a new, fully independent, effective, transparent and accountable anti-foreign interference, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering police force to be established.
