An image of the USA’s “Foreign Agents Registration Act”. Image Credit: (Globe & Mail / Google Images).

Written by: William Ging Wee Dere

The Conservatives are trying to put obstacles in the free expressions of political thought of Canadians who promote ideologies that they do not agree with or like. It is blatant what ideologies Senator Leo Housakos has in mind with his proposed Bill S-237 both in the content of the bill and in his speeches in the Senate to boost the bill. Housakos points out the foreign influence of the governments of Russia, Iran and China. He aims his fire especially at China, as he spoke in the Senate, March 29, 2022, “The call for a foreign agent registry also comes from a wide array of civil society and community groups, including Canada-Hong Kong Link, The Central and Eastern European Council in Canada, Saskatchewan Stands with Hong Kong, Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement and the Council of Iranian Canadians.” All the usual anti-China, anti-Russia and anti-Iran groups.

Senator Leo Housakos’ Bill S-237, Foreign Influence Registry and Accountability Act, has reached 2nd reading in the Senate. It is a revival of the bill presented by Kenny Chiu, former Member of Parliament. Chiu’s bill died upon his defeat in the last federal elections, September 2021. Housakos invokes Chiu’s defeat as a demonstration of foreign, i.e., Chinese government’s interference in Canada’s elections. The Canada Files has previous written that Chiu’s electoral defeat was due to voters in his Richmond, BC riding turning away from his extremely divisive and right wing politics, and not by Chinese government interference in his re-election campaign as he claimed. Are the Conservatives saying, in such black and white terms, that a vote against the Conservatives in the Chinese Canadian community is a vote influenced by China?

Chiu’s defunct Bill C-282, Foreign Influence Registry Act, and Housakos’ new bill would require individuals or entities to register with the Canadian state authorities if contact with Canadian politicians or senior federal public officials could be perceived to be acting on behalf of certain foreign governments or entities.

It is clear where Housakos and the Conservatives’ sympathies are. He defends the foreign influence on the “truckers’ convoy”, by saying, “foreign involvement in the recent ‘Freedom Convoy,’ in particular about foreign financing, [is] something that was not actually borne out during committee hearings ...” and then he expresses, “concern about foreign involvement and funding of other protests, including all manner of illegal blockades in Canada.” It is obvious in his Senate speech that he was referring to the Indigenous and environmentalist blockades of pipeline construction on Indigenous nations’ lands.

Upon failure to register, the draconian legislation would impose a penalty of “a fine not exceeding $200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.” This bill could criminalize and punish public political thought that the Conservatives do not agree with. This is the purpose and the danger of this bill – to dampen any dissenting political opinion that questions the dominate thought.

Who’s supports Housakos’ bill & who’s likely to be targeted by it?

An interesting sidebar is the case of Conservative leadership candidate, former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest. Charest, through his law firm, McCarthy Tétrault, of which he is a partner, represented Huawei. Housakos insists that Charest would definitely have to register as an individual/entities that represents a foreign entity. Housakos considers Huawei to be an entity of the Chinese government. Playing partisan politics, Housakos is a strong supporter of Pierre Poilievre in Quebec for the federal Conservative leadership. This line of thinking would not just apply to Jean Charest but to other politicians like John McCallum, Allan Rock and even former PM Chretien who campaigned for the release of Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou. Grassroots organizations like the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War would be directly targeted by the proposed bill.

Housakos in his Senate speech to defend Bill S-387 cites the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project as one of his supporters. He should know full well that URAP is financially supported by the National Endowment for Democracy of the US. URAP, in fact, works as an adjunct of the US government to influence Canadian politicians, institutions and media to follow the US policy of containing China and causing trouble for people in Xinjiang.

There is the McDonald-Laurier Institute, a notorious right-wing think tank, financed by various foreign governments like Latvia and Taiwan to influence Canadian foreign policy and public opinion. Marcus Kolga, a Senior Fellow at the MLI, is all over the news these days due to his self-acclaimed status of being an expert on the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. He has also become a military “expert” on the war in Ukraine. All these individuals and entities should presumably be subjected to the foreign influence registry, if it comes into existence. This is probably not what the Conservatives have in mind.

Housakos, in his speech to introduce the bill, uses the example of Australia and the US as countries that have shown the way to require registration of persons or entities that seek to influence for foreign governments. It should be noted that copying Australia and US legislation only furthers colonial and imperialist approach to international affairs and the heinous treatment of immigrants from the targeted countries such as China. Australia imposed the Chinese Poll Tax in 1855. The US (California) introduced the Chinese Poll Tax in 1852. The US then passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, forbidding Chinese immigration to the US. When Canada copied these legislations, it did not turn out well for Chinese immigrants. Using Australia as an example, Canada passed the Head Tax requiring Chinese immigrants to pay up to $500 per head to enter Canada (1885 to 1923). The last time Chinese Canadians had a registry was the General Registers of Chinese Immigration, which contained the names of 81,000 Chinese immigrants that paid the Head Tax.

Copying the US, Canada also passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to forbid Chinese immigration to Canada (1923-1947). Racist Canadian legislation that lasted 62 years of Canadian history were levelled at the Chinese community. Today, Housakos and the Conservatives want to pass legislation to again target the Chinese Canadian community. Housakos is not just fishing in troubled waters but he is casting a wide drag-net in Canada’s Chinese community in the tradition of seeing a red under every bed.

This legislation, if passed into law will not only affect the democratic rights of the Chinese Canadian community but all Canadians. The Conservative hypocrisy on free political opinion seems only to apply to those that agree with their ideological thinking. This is a danger for democratic and freedom thinking individuals and entities. As the world become more dangerous with the new Cold War and Hot Wars, attacks on Canadian freedoms and democratic rights will likely persist. Canadians should be vigilant against any threats from right-wing legislation like the Foreign Influence Registry and Accountability Act.

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William Ging Wee Dere is the author of the award-winning “Being Chinese in Canada, The Struggle for Identity, Redress and Belonging.” (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019). He was a political organizer and a leading activist in the 2-decade movement for redress of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act.

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