Canada Resists Foreign Agent Registry Due to Rampant Elite Capture by China, MPs Hear
Despite concerns of Chinese interference in federal elections and targeting of Canadian politicians, efforts to create a foreign agent registry in Canada remain stagnant. The potential involvement of many Canadian elites with the registry has contributed to the resistance, a House committee heard. Christian Leuprecht, professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, told MPs that “elite capture,” particularly by China, is a “significant challenge” for Canada. “Elite capture by China, both by pecuniary interests, as well as companies and law firms that are related to elite capture … I believe this is the major reason for significant resistance and active lobbying against a foreign agent registry that has been proposed,” he testified at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) on May 11. Leuprecht was responding to a question from Liberal MP Sherry Romanado on whether former Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been soft on China, citing a remark from Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former chief of the Asia-Pacific Unit within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who also testified at the PROC on May 11. Juneau-Katsuya said Harper became soft on China at the end of his mandate because “agents of influence were capable to gain access to him and change the course of his decision-making.” He also pointed out that agents of communist China have influenced every Canadian federal government from Brian Mulroney’s to Justin Trudeau’s administrations. During the hearing, Leuprecht was asked about the issue of a $140,000 donation to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation made by two Chinese businessmen, Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, who are reportedly linked to the regime in Beijing. Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked if Leuprecht believes the donation amounts to foreign interference, considering that it came from a Canadian shell company based in Montreal, controlled by the China Cultural Industry Association, which the MP said is part of China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD). The UFWD is China’s “primary foreign interference tool,” according to a number of reports cited by Public Safety Canada. In response, Leuprecht acknowledged that concerns about the donation have been raised since 2016 and that there needs to be an honest discussion, adding that people are resisting a foreign agent registry because of “the number of Canadian elites that would get in snarled in such a registry.” Alexandre Trudeau, brother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and member of the Foundation named after their father, said there has been no foreign interference involved, while testifying at the House of Commons ethics committee on May 3. The PROC has been investigating China’s interference in the 2019 election after Global News reported last November that Beijing provided illegal funding to at least 11 candidates in the federal race. The committee has also heard testimonies on a number of issues related to the regime’s interference in Canada. Combating Foreign Interference Leuprecht called for a coherent deterrence strategy that imposes cumulative costs on hostile state actors, particularly from China. “Foreign interference is fundamentally a matter of Canadian sovereignty,” he said. “Subversion by Beijing is the single greatest threat to Canada’s sovereignty and democratic way of life, today.” “Too many Canadians and MPs are taking democracy for granted. Instead, a government that claims to have a values-based foreign policy should be defending and protecting Canadian democracy, freedoms, and way of life.” Leuprecht suggested establishing clear thresholds for foreign interference and subversion, as well as punitive consequences for violating Canadian law. He also recommended assigning integrated national security enforcement teams to foreign interference investigations, as they have already proven to be effective against terrorism. Additionally, he said the Chinese Communist Party’s UFWD subversion is bolstered by China’s large number of foreign diplomatic services in Canada, which he said is unreasonable considering the relatively small number of accredited Canadian diplomats in Canada. “The CCP’s United Front Work Department behaves like a state-sponsored transnational organized criminal syndicate, so let’s treat it as such and shut down these thugs and their club secret police stations,” Leuprecht added, referencing reports of clandestine Chinese police stations operating in Ontario, British Columbia, and Montreal. The alleged police stations first came to public attention in a September 2022 report released by Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, which was investigating Beijing’s claims that some of its overseas police outposts contributed to the repatriation—described as “persuasion to return”—of an estimated 230,000 Chinese people living abroad. Noé Chartier and Peter Wilson contributed to this report.
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Despite concerns of Chinese interference in federal elections and targeting of Canadian politicians, efforts to create a foreign agent registry in Canada remain stagnant. The potential involvement of many Canadian elites with the registry has contributed to the resistance, a House committee heard.
Christian Leuprecht, professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, told MPs that “elite capture,” particularly by China, is a “significant challenge” for Canada.
“Elite capture by China, both by pecuniary interests, as well as companies and law firms that are related to elite capture … I believe this is the major reason for significant resistance and active lobbying against a foreign agent registry that has been proposed,” he testified at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) on May 11.
Leuprecht was responding to a question from Liberal MP Sherry Romanado on whether former Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been soft on China, citing a remark from Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former chief of the Asia-Pacific Unit within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who also testified at the PROC on May 11.
Juneau-Katsuya said Harper became soft on China at the end of his mandate because “agents of influence were capable to gain access to him and change the course of his decision-making.” He also pointed out that agents of communist China have influenced every Canadian federal government from Brian Mulroney’s to Justin Trudeau’s administrations.
During the hearing, Leuprecht was asked about the issue of a $140,000 donation to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation made by two Chinese businessmen, Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, who are reportedly linked to the regime in Beijing. Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked if Leuprecht believes the donation amounts to foreign interference, considering that it came from a Canadian shell company based in Montreal, controlled by the China Cultural Industry Association, which the MP said is part of China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD). The UFWD is China’s “primary foreign interference tool,” according to a number of reports cited by Public Safety Canada.
In response, Leuprecht acknowledged that concerns about the donation have been raised since 2016 and that there needs to be an honest discussion, adding that people are resisting a foreign agent registry because of “the number of Canadian elites that would get in snarled in such a registry.”
Alexandre Trudeau, brother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and member of the Foundation named after their father, said there has been no foreign interference involved, while testifying at the House of Commons ethics committee on May 3.
The PROC has been investigating China’s interference in the 2019 election after Global News reported last November that Beijing provided illegal funding to at least 11 candidates in the federal race. The committee has also heard testimonies on a number of issues related to the regime’s interference in Canada.
Combating Foreign Interference
Leuprecht called for a coherent deterrence strategy that imposes cumulative costs on hostile state actors, particularly from China.
“Foreign interference is fundamentally a matter of Canadian sovereignty,” he said. “Subversion by Beijing is the single greatest threat to Canada’s sovereignty and democratic way of life, today.”
“Too many Canadians and MPs are taking democracy for granted. Instead, a government that claims to have a values-based foreign policy should be defending and protecting Canadian democracy, freedoms, and way of life.”
Leuprecht suggested establishing clear thresholds for foreign interference and subversion, as well as punitive consequences for violating Canadian law. He also recommended assigning integrated national security enforcement teams to foreign interference investigations, as they have already proven to be effective against terrorism.
Additionally, he said the Chinese Communist Party’s UFWD subversion is bolstered by China’s large number of foreign diplomatic services in Canada, which he said is unreasonable considering the relatively small number of accredited Canadian diplomats in Canada.
“The CCP’s United Front Work Department behaves like a state-sponsored transnational organized criminal syndicate, so let’s treat it as such and shut down these thugs and their club secret police stations,” Leuprecht added, referencing reports of clandestine Chinese police stations operating in Ontario, British Columbia, and Montreal.
The alleged police stations first came to public attention in a September 2022 report released by Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, which was investigating Beijing’s claims that some of its overseas police outposts contributed to the repatriation—described as “persuasion to return”—of an estimated 230,000 Chinese people living abroad.
Noé Chartier and Peter Wilson contributed to this report.
