Fighting Foreign Interference
Secure Canada is advocating for stronger laws and policies to protect Canadians and diaspora communities from foreign authoritarian regimes that seek to silence, intimidate, and control them.
Foreign interference and transnational repression, the harassment, intimidation, or attempted control of diaspora communities in Canada, are becoming increasingly pervasive. Foreign regimes, including China, Russia, and Iran, use covert tactics to manipulate elections, harass dissidents, threaten journalists, infiltrate institutions, disrupt democratic processes, and undermine national security. Despite Canada's legal obligations to protect people within its borders, the Canadian government has yet to sufficiently respond.
Combatting Transnational Repression and Foreign Interference in Canada, authored by Sarah Teich, David Matas, and Hannah Taylor and published in September 2023 as a joint publication of Secure Canada and Human Rights Action Group, documents this problem in depth. Drawing on a review of the relevant literature and on witness and victim interviews, the report catalogues incidents of transnational repression and foreign interference with a Canadian nexus, assesses the international and domestic legal frameworks and mechanisms available to combat them, and proposes thirty-seven recommendations for the Government of Canada.
From Research to Reform
The report is the foundation of this project, not the end of it. Human Rights Action Group was a party to the Hogue Inquiry on Foreign Interference, in both the fact finding and policy recommendations stages, and the report was entered into the Commission's documentary evidence. Secure Canada appeared on a panel focused on foreign interference alongside former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and MP Michael Chong at the Canada Strong and Free Conference. We continue to press for reforms through engagement with parliamentarians, government officials, and allied organizations.