No Reason Foreign Interference Legislation Can’t Be Passed Quickly: Former Clerk Wernick

Michael Wernick, Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management at the University of Ottawa waits to appear as a witness at the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) investigating foreign election inference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 18, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

In light of controversies surrounding foreign interference and related government reactions, the former top public servant in Ottawa says there’s no reason parties can’t work together to legislate on the matter in the coming months.

Michael Wernick, former Clerk of the Privy Council, says this should be done to “protect the future.”

Wernick was testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) on April 19 in the context of its study on foreign interference.

Committee member NDP MP Rachel Blaney has often expressed in recent weeks that she fears the current situation is generating a lack of trust in Canada’s institutions and asked Wernick about potential solutions.

“One of the things that would probably reassure Canadians about the health of their democracy is to see the political parties working together to bring in foreign interference legislation,” he said.

“There’s no reason in a minority Parliament that legislation couldn’t be tabled, studied, debated, amended, and passed before Christmas.”

Blaney’s line of questioning was around how the government can release enough information to reassure the public, since many of the recent measures announced involved closed-door reviews.

“Do you have any thoughts about how these systems can work together and if these processes that the Liberals keep talking about are actually transparent enough for Canadians to have assurance in the system,” she asked.

National security leaks in the media since November on the extent of interference by the Chinese regime have prompted opposition parties to request a public inquiry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has instead appointed former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur to evaluate how best to respond to the threat.

He has also tasked the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians and the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency to look into the matter.

The Liberal government also announced the launching of public consultations on a foreign agent registry.

A bill to establish the registry has already been tabled and completed first reading in the Senate in February 2022, but it’s sponsor, Sen. Leo Housakos, says it’s been stalled by the government.

“All the Trudeau government has to do is … give the green light to Trudeau-appointed senators to review the bill, to pass the bill, and send it to the House of Commons, and within two, three months we can have a foreign registry,” he recently told The Epoch Times.

Housakos also criticized this week the lack of law enforcement action to deal with foreign interference in Canada.

“While the FBI & Department of Justice deal seriously and swiftly with foreign operatives on American soil - Canadians are left to wonder why there have been no arrests and no charges laid in relation to Beijing operating clandestine police stations right here in Canada,” he wrote on Twitter.

The FBI arrested two individuals on April 17 for operating an illegal Chinese police station in New York City, with charges including conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese regime.

The RCMP also says it is investigating two suspected Chinese police stations in the Montreal area and has conducted disruption activities at others in the country by posting visible officers nearby, but no charges have been laid.

Andrew Chen contributed to this report.